Any advice please re disused fountain

[DonnaT]

Hi everyone

There was a fountain in the garden when we moved in which we took apart as the water was continually getting stagnant and we didn't really know anything about maintenance or how to keep it clean. I thought we could just plant something nice in the concrete container and that would be it. I've now discovered that nothing will survive in there as there's no drainage and it's now totally flooded - I just about managed to salvage the little palm tree I'd planted. Can anyone suggest what I can do next? It's an eyesore as it is - is my best bet to try and get someone in to drill some holes in the base of the concrete so I can plant something? Or try and put in a new fountain? Maybe there was a problem with the old fountain pump which was why the water was full of algae and green. Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any advice.

Donna

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Drilling holes sounds a bit sophisticated to me, I would have a good whack at the bottom with the pick end of my pickaxe.

 

[Woollie]

Drilling holes sounds a bit sophisticated to me, I would have a good whack at the bottom with the pick end of my pickaxe.

Drilling holes using the correct type of 'bit' will do the job of course..I think Oliver B is in a bit of a Twist with his pickaxe remark...

 

[Sean Regan]

I'd suggest you don't be too hasty to get rid of it.
Have a think about how you could incorporate it into a re-plan of your garden, none of which needs to happen in "five minutes."
Ours evolved over many years.

I'd be surprised if there wasn't some sort of "bung" around the bottom of the base to allow it to be drained. As has been suggested, drilling a 1" hole in the side would be sufficient to allow it to be drained.

A replacement fountain wouldn't be cheap unless you went for plastic and then there's not a lot of variety. In 2019 we closed down our 3000 gallon koi pool we'd had for over thirty years. But we still wanted some sort of water feature, but the choices were poor. We eventually found a company that imported Massarelli fountains from America once a year. So we settled on this one. It was £500, they've gone up a lot since then. Yours would probably be nearer £2000.


We can turn ours on from one of the four switches behind our lounge curtains that control all the lights in the garden. What was our koi pool is now our "rose patio."

We think the fountain enhanses our small garden. It's only 85ft long.

It would be worth perservering with the fountain, a suitable fountain pump won't be that expensive, you can get them with LED lights like ours. There are low voltage options available so would be easy enough to connect up. You could even have two in a fountain that size.
You can buy tablets to keep it clean. You could even keep goldfish in it if you chose. Changing the water a couple of times a year wouldn't be that much of a chore.

 

[Woollie]

I'd suggest you don't be too hasty to get rid of it.
Have a think about how you could incorporate it into a re-plan of your garden, none of which needs to happen in "five minutes."
Ours evolved over many years.

I'd be surprised if there wasn't some sort of "bung" around the bottom of the base to allow it to be drained. As has been suggested, drilling a 1" hole in the side would be sufficient to allow it to be drained.

A replacement fountain wouldn't be cheap unless you went for plastic and then there's not a lot of variety. In 2019 we closed down our 3000 gallon koi pool we'd had for over thirty years. But we still wanted some sort of water feature, but the choices were poor. We eventually found a company that imported Massarelli fountains from America once a year. So we settled on this one. It was £500, they've gone up a lot since then. Yours would probably be nearer £2000.


We can turn ours on from one of the four switches behind our lounge curtains that control all the lights in the garden. What was our koi pool is now our "rose patio."

View attachment 76318

We think the fountain enhanses our small garden. It's only 85ft long.


View attachment 76319

It would be worth perservering with the fountain, a suitable fountain pump won't be that expensive, you can get them with LED lights like ours. There are low voltage options available so would be easy enough to connect up. You could even have two in a fountain that size.
You can buy tablets to keep it clean. You could even keep goldfish in it if you chose. Changing the water a couple of times a year wouldn't be that much of a chore.

The Garden looks Huge though, with your planning very beautiful. I really miss our Bexhill Garden we made into tree heaven...do not miss the steep incline of the whole property...front garden view...and a Well in the right corner, back which is really the front of the property then drops down to the Garage and Driveway....Badgers were also our neighbours....

the dark grey rocks are a stream and there is a Top Pond and a Pond at the bottom which is feed by a pump, it then runs down the Stream and carries on the cycle...No fish just wildlife ponds....

 

[Sean Regan]

The Garden looks Huge though, with your planning very beautiful. I really miss our Bexhill Garden we made into tree heaven...do not miss the steep incline of the whole property...front garden view...and a Well in the right corner, back which is really the front of the property then drops down to the Garage and Driveway....Badgers were also our neighbours....View attachment 76321

That looks really nice.

We were originally from the Surrey/South London border, but have lived in south Manchester since 1972.

Our garden is only 18ft wide in the first two thirds and about 30ft in the last third.

We planned out the garden once the last of our three children left home, in 1986. Down to what we would do if we ever decided to get rid of the five foot koi pool I was about to build. With a long term plan you don't have to do things twice. I did everything myself, my wife has MS so could only provide tea.

So we went from this,

To this, in a matter of a week.

If you decide to keep your fountain, don't hesitate to ask for any advice you might need. There's several of us on here who can help if needed.

 

[Woollie]

That looks really nice.

We were originally from the Surrey/South London border, but have lived in south Manchester since 1972.

Our garden is only 18ft wide in the first two thirds and about 30ft in the last third.

We planned out the garden once the last of our three children left home, in 1986. Down to what we would do if we ever decided to get rid of the five foot koi pool I was about to build. With a long term plan you don't have to do things twice. I did everything myself, my wife has MS so could only provide tea.

So we went from this,

To this, in a matter of a week.

If you decide to keep your fountain, don't hesitate to ask for any advice you might need. There's several of us on here who can help if needed.

Acer to die for...What amazing colours they can be....We had some Acer's some in pots as small and one by our other working well in the rear garden that was out of the winds and lived well for 3 years and then let us down....Next property along from us had one that was very red and very tall another beaut....the wind was not an issue for that one as so well established and had our Lonicera nitida Hedging
next to it for protection as well...

This I think is one of the better shots of part of our plot, it's about 1 acre and soon to become 1 and a quarter acres as the land adjoining at the end was up for sale the other day, we snapped it up the same day as we do not want anybody else to build on it......The plot was farmland so the grass is rough but we use a tractor mower to keep it as best as we can....Lonesome lives in the Pond and he is huge we think just a standard goldfish but we looks special...he is actually...
Photo from last summer when the rhododendron was healthy,not so now, sadly, maybe should feed it and add some good compost to give is a chance. I laid all those tile myself, straight on to hard soil, they have not moved now for several years...Mr Woollie done the rest.
Sorry to here of your wife having MS. That was a fear for me at one time but has proved otherwise. I have or supposed to have regular MRI scans of my Brain as have a couple of small aneurysms and some scarring of some kind..Not anything that I worry about now...
Love the garden and love the life here so that says it all really...

 

[DonnaT]

I'd suggest you don't be too hasty to get rid of it.
Have a think about how you could incorporate it into a re-plan of your garden, none of which needs to happen in "five minutes."
Ours evolved over many years.

I'd be surprised if there wasn't some sort of "bung" around the bottom of the base to allow it to be drained. As has been suggested, drilling a 1" hole in the side would be sufficient to allow it to be drained.

A replacement fountain wouldn't be cheap unless you went for plastic and then there's not a lot of variety. In 2019 we closed down our 3000 gallon koi pool we'd had for over thirty years. But we still wanted some sort of water feature, but the choices were poor. We eventually found a company that imported Massarelli fountains from America once a year. So we settled on this one. It was £500, they've gone up a lot since then. Yours would probably be nearer £2000.


We can turn ours on from one of the four switches behind our lounge curtains that control all the lights in the garden. What was our koi pool is now our "rose patio."

View attachment 76318

We think the fountain enhanses our small garden. It's only 85ft long.


View attachment 76319

It would be worth perservering with the fountain, a suitable fountain pump won't be that expensive, you can get them with LED lights like ours. There are low voltage options available so would be easy enough to connect up. You could even have two in a fountain that size.
You can buy tablets to keep it clean. You could even keep goldfish in it if you chose. Changing the water a couple of times a year wouldn't be that much of a chore.

Oh, your garden is so beautiful! It makes me want to keep the fountain - I'll have to maybe do a bit of research on fountain pumps.

 

[DonnaT]

Thank you all so much for replying - I really appreciate it. Your water features look amazing - I'm just not sure I have the know-how or ability to install maintain one properly is all. I'll do some research into fountain pumps I think.

 

[Sean Regan]

Thank you all so much for replying - I really appreciate it. Your water features look amazing - I'm just not sure I have the know-how or ability to install maintain one properly is all. I'll do some research into fountain pumps I think.

The problem with fountains is getting power to them safely.

Ours sits on what was formerly the 40gall pump sump for the koi pool. There were two mains submersible pumps in it. The power came from the garage in a cable inside a conduit buried under the path, so was perfectly safe. When we bought the fountain, I used one of the mains cables to carry the low voltage from the transformer plugged into the mains in the garage.

If you've a mains socket in an accesssible dry space, you can run the low voltage cable through a bit of hosepipe for protection to the fountain, buried a few inches below the lawn. A hole drilled in the base of the fountain can feed the cable to the pump. Just fill the hole with silicone once you've put it through.

These low voltage fountain pumps are quite cheap.

 

[Sean Regan]

The Garden looks Huge though, with your planning very beautiful. I really miss our Bexhill Garden we made into tree heaven...do not miss the steep incline of the whole property...front garden view...and a Well in the right corner, back which is really the front of the property then drops down to the Garage and Driveway....Badgers were also our neighbours....View attachment 76321
the dark grey rocks are a stream and there is a Top Pond and a Pond at the bottom which is feed by a pump, it then runs down the Stream and carries on the cycle...No fish just wildlife ponds....

I liked your stream.

I wanted to build a slightly meandering shallow rill, from the back fence to the left of our tea house, down as far as the imitation "bridge," that covers the filter return from the garage. I had it all planned out. I'd have a sump at each end, The one at the top would be about two to three feet deep, the one next to the filter return less than a foot. A return pipe would connect it to the bottom of the sump near the fence, which would contain the pump. I reckoned I could create a fall to the back of the garden of about a foot.
The garden drops about six inches from the back to the pool, so gravity would be enough for the rill to work and return the water back via the pipe to the pump sump. It would work with just a small pump as it wouldn't need to raise the water very far.
It would make it appear that the pool was being fed by the rill, but they would be completely separate.

But my wife said, "too much water."

 

[Woollie]

I liked your stream.

I wanted to build a slightly meandering shallow rill, from the back fence to the left of our tea house, down as far as the imitation "bridge," that covers the filter return from the garage. I had it all planned out. I'd have a sump at each end, The one at the top would be about two to three feet deep, the one next to the filter return less than a foot. A return pipe would connect it to the bottom of the sump near the fence, which would contain the pump. I reckoned I could create a fall to the back of the garden of about a foot.
The garden drops about six inches from the back to the pool, so gravity would be enough for the rill to work and return the water back via the pipe to the pump sump. It would work with just a small pump as it wouldn't need to raise the water very far.
It would make it appear that the pool was being fed by the rill, but they would be completely separate.

But my wife said, "too much water."

We did not really plan it as such...talked about how a stream would work well and I am a digger.At the time Norwegian Granite was being shipped over from the Norwegian Fjords to Bexhill and Hastings Beaches for strengthening the sea walls for the inevitable, rise in the sea levels.Lots of large pieces broken away from the huge boulders...We discussed the piles of large pieces being collected each day with the S Site/ Security Manager and he gave us permission to take what we wanted as it all was going to have to be moved as waste somewhere else..Plan..dig collect Granite dig collect Granite and so the stream was in the making. Shaped and curved it from the Original Top Pond then dug out the Bottom Pond. Lined it all with thick black pond liner material and then placed all the granite along the edges to neaten the look..Plants were added and trailing ones to soften the look as well. Our ducks had a field day as the main back garden pond was covered to keep them from using it as a duck pond, only had access to their little pen ponds or the small wildlife pond also in the back Garden.
Wild life Pond Back Garden

Part of Back Garden with Hot Tub Gazebo built by Mr. Woollie and myself. Duck Pen and
Duck House, had just been sectioned off to make an extra little enclosure for the arrival of two ducklings one from each of our pairs,
Meet Bob and Sue....the closest ducklings ever to be...

small looking peaked roof behind the ducks home is the Chickens Abode
Location was Pebsham, Bexhill on Sea, next door to Pebsham Farm on one side..great at one time... and a mixed housing
Estate the other side. The area has changed completely now.............
called progress.....

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Drilling holes using the correct type of 'bit' will do the job of course..I think Oliver B is in a bit of a Twist with his pickaxe remark...

I was assuming it was not going to be used again, seems the lady wouldn't mind if it is not too complicated. Drilling a hole means all the water goes out in one place, it ups the chance of a blockage or water-logging. A heavy pick axe will punch a hole or two quite easily unless it is very thick concrete, and potentially crack it a bit too, letting the water seep out over a larger area. Drilling the bottom of the side would be better, the water could be led off and the hole plugged if you decided to re-fill with water

 

[Woollie]

A heavy pick axe will punch a hole or two quite easily unless it is very thick concrete, and potentially crack it a bit too, letting the water seep out over a larger area. Drilling the bottom of the side would be better, the water could be led off and the hole plugged if you decided to re-fill with water

A heavy pick is not going to punch a hole Oliver Buckle getting in a twist again..I have used a lightweight pick and they do not do anything but smash..hardly going o seep out..more like flood out ........Of course the holes should be drilled in the side..Drilling in the base is obviously going to drain it like a bath full of water with it's plug pulled out.....

 

[Sean Regan]

This is my drill that I used to drill 1" holes in the concrete screed of our koi pool base, before I had it filled in.

You can hire something like this if you no suitable drill yourself. They are slow turning so easier to control. Ideal for drilling a hole in the fountain.