SUMMER: a tiki birdbath fountain

Nine years ago when we moved into this new house, I created a fun fountain for our backyard using galvanized buckets. You've seen that fountain here on the blog, as well as shared online and published in Country Sampler Farmhouse Style Magazine (past post links are below this post).

Well, after nine years, this spring I was ready for a NEW look - as well as something that fit our tropical decor a bit more than galvie buckets. I had an idea and began collecting the materials I would need, but the main element eluded me. Until one day, I saw something in a facebook Marketplace listing that was the missing piece!

As soon as I had that, I was able to get this project underway. I completed it in April and have been waiting to share this project! I re-purposed a concrete birdbath into part of a fountain in our backyard... along with the relaxing sounds of a fountain, it still functions as a birdbath & watering spot for all of our wild birds. Which makes Deb one happy girl!

Continue reading for my tutorial...

Here's a closer look at my finished fountain, so you can reference this as I share each step of the tutorial. Because though I had every intention of taking photos of every part of the process for this tutorial, I was SO excited to finally get it put together that I didn't take a single 'in process' photo until the fountain was complete!

So I've included 'final' photos of specific areas in my tutorial, along with a diagram and written instructions to help you 'see' the various steps.

TUTORIAL

Materials: This is what I used - your needs may vary

17 Gallon Galvanized bucket 

2 sections of bamboo garden edging - @ 2" taller than the bucket


concrete birdbath + 4 concrete pavers for 'lift'

I searched for MONTHS for a birdbath I liked, but most were too plain OR too ornate. One day I was scrolling through facebook Marketplace and saw THIS happy guy - and he was at a small statuary yard just a few miles away from me, at a GREAT price. I was there within minutes and brought him home that day!

medium size fountain pump and flexible hose + power source
extra large black heavy-duty trash bag . heavy duty wire + wire cutters
(safety glasses +  work gloves when working with heavy wire + concrete)

NOTE: I already had the fence section in place to mount the spout on... you may need to add a piece of trellis, fencing, or perhaps a post or wood ladder behind your fountain to be able to mount a spout. (You can also run the water supply hose up behind the birdbath and curve it into the bowl, held in place with a metal clamp on the edge, for a softer and no-splash option.)

Method:
Let's start with a diagram of how this all goes together.. here's a side view:

NOW I'll break it down into sections 1, 2, and 3 as shown above...

Section 1: The Base
Level the ground and place the galvanized bucket where you want your fountain to be. Make sure it sits completely level and securely on solid ground.

Place an extra large heavy duty black trash bag inside the bucket to line it, and wrap the bag over the top of the sides. (It will be hidden by the bamboo edging - I'll get to that part in a bit.) Why line it? My bucket was rusty, and that discolors the water... I didn't want birds drinking rusty water. The liner also helps muffle the sound of the electric pump, so that the water sounds are easier to hear.

The tiki birdbath I chose was a bit too short for the large bucket - I needed to add four square concrete pavers to lift up the birdbath in the bucket so that all of the fun features of his Tiki face could be seen. I stacked the four pavers in the exact center of the bucket.

The fountain pump was placed in the bucket, behind the pavers.
The water supply hose runs up out of the pump and in between the slats on the wood fence panel, going upward to where the spout will be:

The electric cord runs out of the pump and over the edge of the bucket, then under the faux turf to the exterior-grade electric outlet two feet away. (We had that installed by our landscaper when we did the backyard in 2016.)

The concrete birdbath sits on top of the stacked pavers.
(A very nice - and strong! - neighbor came over to help me lift the concrete birdbath into the bucket. He sat it on the pavers and turned it so the face is at the front. I could NOT have done that part myself.) 

Section 2: Support

I used heavy baling wire to secure the birdbath in place - wrapping a long length of wire around the column of the birdbath, right under the bowl. It runs back to the wood fence panel and wraps around the slats. You can't even see it. But here in Southern California, we regularly get small earthquakes... and I need to be sure this guy won't be toppled by a tremblor!

I found a scrap of wood in my stash that was just the right length to wedge between the birdbath column and the wood fence panel - this allowed me to 'nudge' the column just slightly forward, into a position that helps the water flow FORWARD out of the bowl, rather than dripping over the edge of the bowl all the way around. 

Section 3: The Spout

Up above the birdbath, a small metal 'L' bracket was screwed tightly to the wood fence panel at a height @ 2 1/2 feet above the bowl of the birdbath. I measured up from the center of the birdbath 'bowl' so that the water would fall there, not too close to an edge:


I took one of the pieces of hollow bamboo off of the garden edging and laid it on top of the metal bracket. Zip ties hold it in place. 

The water supply hose runs out from behind the wood fence panel and goes through the hollow bamboo piece. 

When I finally filled and turned on the fountain, I saw that water coming out of the hose was touching the bamboo - which will eventually rot it. So I cut the neck off of a clear plastic water bottle, along with a 1/2" of the rounded top of the bottle... it slid right onto the water hose and into the bamboo piece, preventing water from touching the bamboo. An easy fix:


After Step 3, use a garden hose to fill the bucket with water until it is well above the level of your pump intake valve. Once the bucket is full, use the garden hose to add water to fill the bowl of the birdbath. Then remove the garden hose and plug in your pump. It will take a minute for the water to rise up the hose and go through the spout.

When it does, watch the spout and gauge how much water is flowing, and how it falls into the bowl of the birdbath. It should hit at the center of the bowl, or a little toward the back of the bowl:


There is a valve knob on pumps to allow you to regulate the water flow rate - mine runs best when the valve is at @3/4 open. Too much water flow causes a lot of splash, and that water doesn't go back down into the bucket. That makes the water level in the bucket go down below the pump intake valve... and can burn up your pump quickly.

I never plug in my fountain until I check the water level in the bucket. There's a feral cat that comes and drinks from it every night, and the water level goes down a lot - I just add a few gallons each time I run the fountain to be safe. 

FINAL TOUCHES:

After you have a working fountain, it's easy to give it some final details.

The main one is to hide the bucket and garbage bag liner... this is where the two sections of bamboo garden edging come in.

I used two sections of bamboo garden edging to surround the bucket.

Using two pieces of baling wire, I attached the two sections end to end. Then I placed the center, where they were joined, behind the bucket next to the fence panel. The ends of the edging wrapped around the bucket and were secured with two more pieces of wire in the front. The bamboo fencing is about 2" taller than the bucket, so it hides both the bucket and the garbage bag liner:


When I wrapped the bamboo edging around the bucket, I had to remove two more bamboo pieces (I had already removed one to use for the fountain spout) to make the edging fit close to the bucket. I held onto those pieces for a few days, then got the idea to hang them off of the 'L' bracket holding the spout. One long piece of baling wire threads through the existing holes on the bamboo (one on each end of the wire) then wraps once around the spout to hang them securely: 

When the wind blows, they actually swing and hit each other, creating a soft 'clunk' sound like our bamboo windchimes in the tree!

Next, I added some faux tropical plants and florals - and I know that's often perceived as 'cheating' or tacky. Our summer temps here run from a 'normal' of 95 to a high of 115+, so I try to use only water-wise plantings in our yard. Tropical plants need a lot of water and humidity, which we don't have. So fakes it is! And they work beautifully...

I simply tucked a few bushy foliage plants between the bamboo edging and the bucket on the back side - this hides the hose coming from the pump and the electrical cord as well. A small bunch of leafy foliage was placed at the back of the bamboo spout, also wired onto the wood fence panel, hiding the spot where the black hose comes through the fence:

I tucked big bunches of tropical leaves and a few tall Bird of Paradise blooms into the low foliage. I also used some wire to hold those tall stems to the wood fence panel - because along with high temps, we also get high winds:

I also added a solar light in front of the fountain base, and one up above in the tree beaming down onto the spout and bowl, so this happy tiki can be enjoyed at night, too! We sit outdoors most mornings and nights, as we want to enjoy our oasis of a yard as much as we can... the lighting makes ALL the difference at night: 

After dreaming about and sketching this fountain for months, I enjoy it every single day... the wild birds fly in for a bath or a drink, and I just smile like an idiot because that's exactly what I wanted to happen!

Related Content:


Galvanized Bucket Fountain 
Published in Country Sampler Farmhouse Style Magazine 2023


Wood Slat Fence Section Freestanding Shade Screen


Shared Online:

Funky Junk Interiors | New Upcycle Ideas #786

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