MAKE YOUR OWN FOUNTAIN
Benefifits You don’t need a grand water fountain when it’s easy and cost effective to make your own. Pumps are priced around £20-£30 and if you get the stones for free from somewhere, you won’t pay much more than that! Babbling fountains are a great addition to a rockery feature or sat among your borders, for a natural-looking, mountainous effect.
Top tips
Dig a hole, add some stabilising and drainage-friendly gravel, and add a plastic basin to keep a simple submersible pond pump in. Add the pump with its cord reaching out the end of the basin to plug into the mains. Add copper piping at a length of 60cm (2ft) to the pump via a compression fi ing to siphon water up the fountain. Add a holed screen to the top of the plastic basin, so water can flow in but other debris can’t. Leave an opening so you can tend to the pump when you need to. Add load-bearing wooden planks to the top of the basin on the screen as a foundation for all the stones to sit. Drill central holes in the stones and slot them like a kebab through the copper piping. Your fountain is now ready to be switched on!