fountain project

When we bought our home almost 3 years ago, this fountain was in the backyard filled with irises. I’m not sure what the flowers look like since the irises have never bloomed. Last summer, tree frogs took up residence inside the fountain, providing us with a concert every night.

I decided to clean out the fountain this spring and see if we could get it going again. While I would not add this ornate fountain to my yard, I do like a nice water feature. And, it would take a fair amount of work to dismantle the fountain and remove it. Yes, I think it’s possible there are frog eggs in the fountain which is why we will not be using any chemicals to clean the fountain.

Now that all the irises are out of the fountain and planted elsewhere in our yard, my next step is to clean out the black area. I’ve been cleaning out the leaves, however, there are large stones and landscape fabric at the bottom. I’m not sure if we need both of them, but I’d like to clean out everything and start over.

While it’s hard to see in the picture, at the top of the fountain, the water hose is visibly pointing to the right. On the left is the ornate piece that hides the hose. I found a few brass options on Amazon to replace the ornate piece which is currently broken. It’s been repaired in the past, though the repair may not have been enough.

We think this hose coming out of the ground has been used to drain the bottom part of the fountain. However, it’s not working right now. I suspect the drainage hole in the fountain has become blocked over time with sediment.

This is a close-up of some of the rocks and cinder blocks sitting in the black part.

It looks like this part of the fountain is removable for access to the inside of the fountain.

The fountain operates thanks to a switch inside the house. When we tested the pump this past weekend, water came out of the top of the fountain, though it didn’t have much force behind it. I’m hoping that cleaning out the fountain and refilling it with fresh water will improve the water flow.