Hi! I am Gwen Schoen with the Sacramento Bee, and today’s craft project is a fountain that you can make to go in your garden or you can make a small one to on a tabletop. The way you start is first buying a pump, and pumps are sold by how far they will pump the water.
For a small fountain when that will go 12 to 24 inches is perfect and you can get this at just about any craft store, fountain store or home supply. So most pumps do not come with a rubber hose, that attaches to the pump and that pumps the water up to the top of the fountain. So check the pump when you buy it and see if you need to buy an extra hose.
Hose’s will cost you about $0.50. The pump will be about $12.00 to $15.00. The base of your fountain just needs to be deep enough to keep the pump completely submerged water, and it can be anything that will not rust or leak.
I wanted to use a flower pot to the top of my fountain, and the bottom of the pot had a hole on it. So, I bought a cork that I could put in the bottom of the hole and run the hose through that.
The idea is that I am going to build the base of the fountain up with cobblestones, rest this pot on the top, then the water will run through and spill in to the cobblestones.
Now, the cobblestones that I have bought I got at a brickyard and I could buy big bag of them for about $4.00, and you could then generally will let you go through and pick up on what you want, so you can get the colors and shapes that you want for your project.
It is easiest if you build the fountain and the location where you are going to leave it, because once it is all assembled it will be too difficult to move. The first step is to place the pump in the bottom of the bowl, attach the hose to the only opening that there is on the pump. So, that is how you easy to figure out.
Put the pump in the water, and then because I am going to fill it up with cobblestones, and I do not want to use all my stones. I am going to use an old clay pot in the middle just to fill up some space. Now, I will take the pot that I want the water to spill out off and place that on the side, and fill in the rest with my cobblestones.
Now, you can add a few water plants if you want. And, if you buy those, I will recommend leaving them in the plastic pot, and just putting the pot in the fountain, and that will keep your pump clean, will not get dirt in there. So, the plants--just make sure you use water plants that are designed to live in water.
So keep placing rocks in the bowl and the pot, and arranging the hose until the water is flowing exactly the way you want it to look.
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