Tag: Pamela Neeley

By Pamela Neeley

Around the farm, I have all kinds of lazy water features. Let’s take a look!

This one has a drip from the faucet keeping it full and the water moving. Even large birds, cardinals, come here for water.

Here’s another lazy water feature. The solar fountain keeps things moving. The plant is rooting in a convenient terracotta strawberry pot.  Also there for fish “enrichment”
I put water hose into a pot when topping it off so the water movement doesn’t create mucky water. The fish are doing well and get fed pellets or mosquito larva from nearby sources.

Lazy water source is by the back door faucet. Shallow kitchen container with shard and pot in corner. When there is a fish, they have a place to hide under the shard. The pot provides extra climbing surface so the toads can get out when they find themselves in here. When mosquitos build up, I move a fish over here for a day. The faucet drips into the container when I’m watering around the house.

This large lazy water feature container is not set up right now. I have an electric ceramic fountain, usually 6-8 fish, and a water plant – this is an arrowhead. When set up it creates the pleasing sound of running water, but being under an oak tree presents problems with leaves.

The next lazy water feature is a plant container from a big box store. There’s a pottery shard for fish to hide under, and a pedestal for the water plant and solar fountain. This solar fountain has legs to keep it from hugging the wall and emptying the water on to the ground. I’ve lost one leg, so water escapes regularly.

One happy fish, pedestal  for plant on pedestal  – but too hot right now.

Fountains do need to have algae and minerals scrubbed off top to keep it accepting sun power.  
It’s a very low tech, not too expensive way to have fountain, fish, and a water feature. Just use what you may already have. Solar fountains range from $12-15 on line.

And finally, here’s another low-cost water feature at night. There are two toads enjoying the water at 10:30 pm. One is partially on the solar fountain and partly on the rim of the submerged terracotta pot. He won’t drown.