Something New from Something Old
I've been wanting to get a fountain out on the back deck for sometime now, but since most that I have found that I like cost a pretty penny to buy I decided one day to take matters into my own hands.

 

I have had this nice ceramic strawberry pot for a few years, but I have always had problems with keeping things alive in it. Frustrating. But what to do?

 Pretty pot: check.

Dead plants: check.

I think it's time to try a different tactic here.

I went shopping today. Let's see: I have a new ceramic pot, black river rock, a charcoal grill grate, flexible tubing and a small fountain pump.

The strawberry pot was emptied out and cleaned.

Believe it or not, the hardest part was cleaning the four bricks for the bottom of the fountain. These bricks will hold up the grate and the strawberry pot.

It is a good idea to assemble this where you will want the fountain to sit. No sense in creating more work for yourself.

I had made sure that the pot I chose had no drainage holes and would thus hold water. A pot with drainage holes can be used, but the holes would first have to be sealed. Monkey business, I tell ya!

The tubing was threaded through the pot.

I found an old plastic pot saucer in the garage and cut a hole in the middle of that for the tube. The tubing was then cut off just below the rim of the pot.




The river rock was added to the top of the strawberry pot and around the bottom. As I couldn't find larger river rock for this project, I had some problems with the smaller rocks falling through the grate. But not to fear - I have to replace the screen on a patio door soon and will put some of the old screen on the grate to help hold the rock in place.





This is nice. And I was able to make this fountain in about an hour for under $100 (plus the cost of the strawberry pot).


You know, I don't even mind that the blues don't match. I made this fountain and that is all that matters.
Important information: After a few weeks, I found that I had to regularly change the water as it kept turning a rusty red. I had to dismantle the fountain when our new deck was being built and I took that opportunity to clean all of the components of the fountain. I found that the Weber grill grate was rusting, so it would need to be sealed in some manner to prevent the rust from forming. Luckily, I had some cans of Rust-Oleum spray paint in the garage. A few coats of that and the rust problem has been solved.