I just wanted to take a look at some other quick and easy ways to add a little distinction to your patio. Let’s take a look at some small water feature ideas.
What to look for
The majority of these items are self-contained. All you have to do is add water and turn them on. So it is not a difficult item to set up. You will need a source of electrical power to plug into, in order to operate the pump. These smaller features do not take up a lot of room so you can place them about anywhere.
If you want to step it up a little, there are lots of features out there that incorporate vessels of descending height with water cascading from one to the other until it is either recirculated from the bottom vessel or runs into a small water collection area at the bottom, at ground level and is recirculated from here.
On a bit larger scale, are small ponds that incorporate waterfalls, fountains and other features. These need to be dug into the ground and landscaped to make them appear natural.
The small
Most of these smallest features are purchased as a one piece plug and play item. They can be pumps, jugs, water cans, there is no limit to the imagination or creativity put into these items and they give you a quick bang for your buck.
Being that they are small, many folks create their very own features and it is not difficult. You can buy a pump just about anywhere for these things and tubing and other parts needed are easy to find too. You just need to have a high end for the water to flow from and a low end, big enough to collect enough water and keep the pump submerged in water. Two tubs, a small one placed above and slightly over the edge of the one underneath and set up to allow water to easily flow from the top is a common design.
Place some plants or rocks, or whatever you desire surrounding your creation and you will have your own unique feature.
A little bigger
When acting upon our small water feature ideas, it is not too difficult to come up with our own designed fountain type features. You can find small submersible pumps with fountain attachments just about anywhere that pond supplies are sold.
These small fountain kits and the like can be used in conjunction 
with pots, pails or any thing that holds water to make your self a nice little fountain. The fountain could be installed in a pot containing different sizes and colors of small river rocks. Two pots of different sizes could be stacked atop one another with a fountain coming up between the two through drilled holes to create a very interesting feature.
When you want to go even a little bigger on a fountain feature, you could create a buried fountain. To build this you first need to excavate enough earth from your site so that you may place a round plastic tub of at least 16″ diameter and around 8″ – 10″ deep. The top of the tub should be a little below the surrounding final grade, maybe 2 or 3 inches.
Bury this tub with some excavated earth to just about even with the top of the tub. Now excavate out from the tub at the level of the top of the tub to a diameter of around 4 feet. You could go a little deeper and than just add some masons sand to bring the level of the earth surrounding the tub up to the top of the tub.
Your fountain is placed in the tub and the tub is filled with water. Now is also the time to be sure your pump electrical cord is heading away from the site in the direction of where it will be plugged in. Now you should place some thick polyethylene sheeting or pond liner over the entire excavated area. Cut a small hole over the center of where the fountainhead will be. Now cut slits from the small hole out to the edge of the buried plastic tub. Cut enough slits so that the formed tabs, from the slit cutting will drape down into the buried plastic tub. This will allow any water that falls from the fountain outside of the buried tub to flow back in to the tub.
Place some galvanized metal screening over the entire excavated area on top of 1″ PVC tubing, bridging the buried tub on each side of the fountain. Also, place, at least two more pieces of the PVC tubing outside and parallel to the previous placed pieces. This whole construction will support river rocks placed in the next step above your tub of water and allow water to flow freely back into the tub.
Now just place small river rock, large enough to stay on top of the galvanized screen without falling through, all over the prepared area Get creative as you like here. All you have to do at this point is plug it in and enjoy.
Have Fun
The idea here is to have fun. When you think creating something like the buried water fountain from the last section seems like something you would enjoy giving a try, then you should by all means go for it. If not, then I’m sure with a little searching you can find an item that will bring you some satisfaction.
There are tons of small water feature ideas on the internet. You can start here and look for what you like in other folks features and decide what is the best for you. The joy is in the journey here, as I am sure you can get lost in the vast amount of eye pleasing projects you will come across.
I am sure you have seen the large ponds that some people have installed on their properties. Most of these are not a small undertaking and require a bit of skill to assemble and look natural. For that reason I will not bring them to this discussion. They warrant their own separate piece for another time.
Thanks and feel free to leave comment below.
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