18m Fountain & Pond

Eighteen months (really) later.  Nice!

The journey.   It all began with a chance stop at a pottery depot.  And a nice, affordable, self-contained water fountain.  Hubs liked it.  So, I dug a trench, laid and cut PVC pipe, ran an outdoor heavy duty extension cord.  Put the walkway back together and roughed out a level 36" spot for the fountain.  It was to be our Christmas present to ourselves.  Went to pick it up one weekend, and the place was out of business.

Commence dilemma of the top row taste and box budget.

I found a video on Lowes.com, how to construct an outdoor water fountain.  Using a decorative ceramic pot.  Coolness.  Seems easy enough.

Just need to dig a hole.  And dig, and dig.  And move the sand.  And remove tree roots.  And more tree roots.  And dig some more.  Move more sand.  Dig, roots, move.  You get the idea. 

I always did want a water lily.  And some mosquito fish.

Then the stump from hell.  There was a looooooonnnnnngggg delay before the stump grinder.  Then letting it compost in the hole.

Material Used:
Pond Liner
9 bags river rock
~ 500 lbs rock from Pebble Junction
PVC Pipe & Fittings
Heavy Duty Outdoor extension cord

We finally found a fountain we liked, and it fit our budget.  For not much more than we would have spent buying a pump and ceramic pot and supplies for a do-it-ourselvers.

Notice the 8x8x8 concrete building block under the fountain base?  with the hollow middle section open to the water?

Very important for the health and happiness of any fish.

Fill it with water and let it settle.

 

Add some plants and some mosquito fish aka comet goldfish.

Keep adding rock till you have the look you are after.

Discover that your 'mosquito fish' have suddenly become part of the family.  You worry and fuss over them.  And fret when one of the six suddenly becomes ill after a few weeks.  Then later give her a burial under a tomato plant.

Realize how it is going to be when you have named your fish.

/wave
/Hi Kids!

Our .27c Comet Goldfish are family.  And entertaining.  And best keep healthy.

A beautiful way to start the morning and enjoy the first cup of coffee of the morning.  Now we need a bird feeder in the front.  Squirrel proof.  I've got just the spot.  And the feeder.

The neighborhood cats, and certain other critters are enjoying the water bowl.  But I draw the line on feeding the squirrels.

See it?  Cheeky critters!  At least the fish are smart enough to zoom into their hidey hole.  Speaking of which, the fish are starting to get to know me.  They don't run as much when I'm around as they did at first.

We don't really feed them much.  They get most of their grub eating bugs on the water.  Just a few pond kibbles twice a week.  They are growing gangbusters.  And hopefully they are lean mean pooping machines.  The tomatoes be wanting some poopy water.

We might not be able to keep hens for eggs and poop fertilizer, but we've got the worm poop and now the fish poop.  Hmm, wonder if we can grow seaweed?  mwahahaha-haha 

A water lily would be much more pretty.  Yellow of course.