water fountain...and gardening pot ideas

[Philothei]

We will be buying a water fountain...



Do you have some suggestions if they do ok without water treatment? Do I need to put some tablets in the water from the Home depot ?

 

[InfinityandBeyond]

Depends, do you want birds to use it?
I would ask when you go, it can depend on your climate, and the type you buy.

 

[paul1149]

Philothei - I think one factor is the degree of oxygenation. The more "gurgly" you can make the fountain, the clearer the water should run.

 

[Philothei]

Depends, do you want birds to use it?
I would ask when you go, it can depend on your climate, and the type you buy.

Philothei - I think one factor is the degree of oxygenation. The more "gurgly" you can make the fountain, the clearer the water should run.

I ended up buying one from K-mart for 50 dolllars and I think that it is pretty good...Not on the super fast 'gurgly' side but for now will do I was thinking to buy a bigger pump maybe next year

Cascade Vase Fountain--Outdoor Living-Outdoor Decor-Fountains & Pumps

Mine is brown just the same though. I am planning sometime in the future to make a little in ground pond with a small fountain

The bummer is that the noise from my neighbor's radon exhaust (which is truly over 30 feet away) still is loud enough so we cannot hear the fountain...I will have to relocate it I guess... to the other side of the patio

 

[paul1149]

I wonder if you could plant a dense bush to muffle the sound of the fan.

 

[Scandia]

Good thread because we are looking at a few ourselves.

 

[Philothei]

I wonder if you could plant a dense bush to muffle the sound of the fan.

Hmmm...it is high up a pole resting on their house's wall... There is no way I can put up a fence that high...but I think I will relocate the fountain...

BTW the fountain is not making the noise of that of a water fountain but will do for now I am thinking of building a little pond for next year elevated not inground that will have more of a presence in our back yard.

As of now I will post the pics of the patio that I just finished.... I just put on the waterproofing sealant and also I painted all the railing white It looks great but took us 2 weeks to finish . It will be totally finished tomorrow night but will post the pics for sure....

The deck part of the patio (one part of the patio is cement so I had to put a paint down) is cement and the other part is the actual wooden deck. It is ten years old and it was painted brown I striped the wood (took me all last summer to do ). I would suggest to save up the money and have it prof. cleaned/striped. I used more money to buy the staff and got to work on it like a full time job last summer...This summer I had to deal with the mold since I did not get to finish it last summer

The mold took two days to scrub and clean up ...It was a atrocious task and glad it is over :o

Never again would I ever undertake to strip wood...The messiest and more tiring job plus very expensive with all the stuff I had to buy

Anyhow now it is done and I think I might need to do a second coat but will do it next year for this year I am DONE with yard work ....

Good thread because we are looking at a few ourselves.

Welcome Scandia

Yeah I need some feedback too and maybe we can encourage each other. Now days with the economy so bad we need to pull all our resources together when it comes to yard planning and work

I am planning for the next project to build a pond for our back yard

 

[paul1149]

Stripping wood is a pain. I hope I never have to do it again. I've stripped stain and very old paint using a power washer, and that's pretty painless. But solid paint, I don't know.

I guess they pipe the exhaust up high so no one will breathe it. It that case, maybe a loud fountain set up will act as white noise. I've used the sound of moving water to go to sleep by when there's noise around, and it works very nicely.

 

[Philothei]

Stripping wood is a pain. I hope I never have to do it again. I've stripped stain and very old paint using a power washer, and that's pretty painless. But solid paint, I don't know.

I guess they pipe the exhaust up high so no one will breathe it. It that case, maybe a loud fountain set up will act as white noise. I've used the sound of moving water to go to sleep by when there's noise around, and it works very nicely.

It was such hard work to get the paint off...I used power washer, chem stripper (yuck) and also steal wool plus sanding paper. I was about to buy the actual sanding gadget when it was about done....

Hmm...Yeah the pipe is pretty high... And you are right I will need a pretty loud fountain...maybe a water fall more likely hehe

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

Cute pond.

 

[gideon123]

"Good thread because we are looking at a few ourselves. "

It is a good thread ... because I also want to introduce running water (or dripping water) into my garden. However - I want the water to be available to birds and insects - hence not contaminated. I don't want to spend tons of time cleaning excess slime out of the system. I wonder if there's a way to combine water and some natural plants to prevent a build-up of algae???

I guess what I could do is just have a high bucket mounted on a fence that drips a small stream of water down thru some sort of ornamental display. That way water is constantly moving, and I would really only need to clean the bucket every week. Of course, the water would only run for a period of a couple of hours each day - but that might be better than a 24-hour system that needs constant attention. Just thinking out loud.

tx,
gideon123

 

[Philothei]

Hmm...that is an idea... Running water would run the electric billl hehe... But was wondering if a koi pont would be a better choice to keep the algae down??

Maybe I will look at some you tube videos and post it here...will give us some ideas

 

[paul1149]

One way to keep the water pure is to run it through a bed of reeds set in gravel. The gravel attracts mineral deposits and serves as a base for microorganisms that further purify the water. The reeds then take these up through their roots, and through transpiration act to cool the surrounding air. They also add a nice exotic flavor to the setting. The best way to construct the bed is with gravel that gets smaller as the water progresses, as smaller particles offer more surface area. I haven't found a good video on this, but I know they are out there.

The other area I'm interested in is rainwater reclamation. I'm on the lookout for a free small used swimming pool for collection of roof water.

 

[gideon123]

Paul ... .thanks!
Those are some great ideas.
I'll give it a shot

gideon123