A FOUNTAIN FOR FALL
My friend the neophyte gardener goes to Home Depot and Lowe's two or three times a week. She and her husband are busy buying landscape edging, concrete blocks, trellises, fencing, and anything else they can still find in stock to finish up the hardscape on their first-year garden. She's always looking for bargains and so when she told me this fountain at Lowe's had been marked down to $29 I had to stop by and see for myself. It was pretty cute but maybe not my first choice for a wall fountain. But at $29 I couldn't pass it up. Plus it was the last one left. And since I'd had an earlier failure with a "water feature" this seemed like a good buy and a boost to my end-of-summer doldrums. I didn't have a really good place to put it because my back porch is crammed with a mish-mosh of assorted stuff, none of which goes together and it all takes up a lot of room. So I removed a wooden shelf and slapped the fountain onto the wall. Instant ambience! I spent most of the weekend on the porch so I could listen to the sound of the water and pretend like it was still summer, even though I was shivering most of the time.
Earlier in the season I'd purchased a solar fountain to put in my miniscule pond to help aerate the water. Since I quit buying goldfish (otherwise known as raccoon hors d'euvres) the water tends to get a little yucky. But it seems I grossly underestimated the amount of sunlight that area receives. The solar panel doesn't store energy, it works only when the sun is shining directly on it. So when I'd leave for work, no bubbling fountain. When I got home from work, no jet of water. It became a weekend fountain, and even at that, I had to keep moving the solar panel to catch the direct rays. I felt like a sunflower constantly turning my face to follow the sun. It didn't help that the raccoons threw the darn thing out of the pond each night and I had to keep resetting it. So being the lazy gardener that I am I finally gave up on it. My new fall fountain seems to be just the thing I needed. But I am careful to turn it off at night. I have visions of raccoons swarming over it washing their food while I sleep and then me coming out in the morning to find it all in a heap on the patio floor. This may happen anyway, but I won't tempt them.
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My friend the neophyte gardener goes to Home Depot and Lowe's two or three times a week. She and her husband are busy buying landscape edging, concrete blocks, trellises, fencing, and anything else they can still find in stock to finish up the hardscape on their first-year garden. She's always looking for bargains and so when she told me this fountain at Lowe's had been marked down to $29 I had to stop by and see for myself. It was pretty cute but maybe not my first choice for a wall fountain. But at $29 I couldn't pass it up. Plus it was the last one left. And since I'd had an earlier failure with a "water feature" this seemed like a good buy and a boost to my end-of-summer doldrums. I didn't have a really good place to put it because my back porch is crammed with a mish-mosh of assorted stuff, none of which goes together and it all takes up a lot of room. So I removed a wooden shelf and slapped the fountain onto the wall. Instant ambience! I spent most of the weekend on the porch so I could listen to the sound of the water and pretend like it was still summer, even though I was shivering most of the time._resize.5.jpg)
Earlier in the season I'd purchased a solar fountain to put in my miniscule pond to help aerate the water. Since I quit buying goldfish (otherwise known as raccoon hors d'euvres) the water tends to get a little yucky. But it seems I grossly underestimated the amount of sunlight that area receives. The solar panel doesn't store energy, it works only when the sun is shining directly on it. So when I'd leave for work, no bubbling fountain. When I got home from work, no jet of water. It became a weekend fountain, and even at that, I had to keep moving the solar panel to catch the direct rays. I felt like a sunflower constantly turning my face to follow the sun. It didn't help that the raccoons threw the darn thing out of the pond each night and I had to keep resetting it. So being the lazy gardener that I am I finally gave up on it. My new fall fountain seems to be just the thing I needed. But I am careful to turn it off at night. I have visions of raccoons swarming over it washing their food while I sleep and then me coming out in the morning to find it all in a heap on the patio floor. This may happen anyway, but I won't tempt them.
9 comments:
I would have bought it too for $29 maybe I should check our local Lowes!!! I've seen that fountain there before, not my first choice either but it is worth $29. My favorite fountain is the kind with the vertical tiers that the water spills over from the top.
I've always wanted a wall fountain but never can figure out quite where to put it. For $29 I might think a little harder. I just might stop by Lowes...
Earlier this spring, I did open my wallet up for a tall, narrow fountain to put by my front door. It's been a nice addition, and I, too, sit out there sometimes just to listen to it.
I like your fountain. I bet it's fun to listen to. My favorite water sound is the ocean, but a fountain sounds pretty nice too. Good luck with the raccoons. Here we have tejones and some kind of large cat that's really scary. The cat can leap up and claw down a plastic bag of garbage hung eight feet in the air. Yuck.
Have fun getting ready for winter. I will think of you, as I wear shorts and flipflops. Take care
Melissa, my sentiments exactly. And yes, my ideal fountain is quite a bit pricier, as is sounds like yours is!
Carol, your narrow fountain sounds lovely. Do you have it pictured on your blog? I'm going to have to snoop around and see!
Gardener, yikes, that cat sounds scary! Is it one of those civet cats? They have a really odd name in Mexico but I can't think what it is. They look kind of like a raccoon?
I'm sorry that your gardening season is winding down. I'd gladly send you some of our Honduran heat for some of your Coloradan cold, if I could.
You may snoop around but you won't find it, yet. I took some pictures of it today and will post it sometime over the weekend.
Oh my so many Carol's in here this time lol!
I like your bargain fountain LR! Nothing better than listening to water in summer because of the refreshing sound. I need water in my garden too somehow and I think that will be my mission for next year.
How late is Lowe's open??? For $29, what a bahgain (that's how it is pronounced where I come from) you have! Love it. I had bought a solar fountain for my "miniscule pond" one year too and had same results. And the solar fountain passed away in not enough light. Too bad, because I ended up trimming and providing more sunlight, but too late. Oh, those raccoons!
Yes, I made the same mistake with my solar operated outdoor wall fountain. As the season changed, the sun moved and my house (which I hadn't lived in for a full year yet) began to block the afternoon sun. Now the poor thing has retired, but I am trying to create a plan to move it, soon.
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