Make This EASY, FAST, DIY Water Feature for Local Wildlife!
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- čas přidán 14. 07. 2023
- I have been working with Garden for Wildlife to transform my standard American landscape into a certified wildlife habitat, but one of the requirements has been eluding me... until I figured out a way to make this easy and fast water feature that will bring much needed water for my local wildlife!
Anyone can make this water feature, and we'll show you how easy and inexpensive it can be!
If you would like to learn more about Garden for Wildlife and the amazing native plant collections they have available, please visit www.gardenforwildlife.com/yar...
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The National Wildlife Federation has been leading conservation efforts in the United States since 1936! You can support their efforts at www.nwf.org/
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#permaculture #permaculturedesign #sustainablelandscaping #sustainability #gardenforwildlife #nationalwildlifefederation
I'm Daryl. I really hate mowing the lawn.
That’s how all of this began: a search for landscaping alternatives that don't require sacrificing every Saturday morning to the mower.
As a certified permaculture designer, I help transform boring, basic lawns into beautiful yards that take care of us the way we take care of them.
If you are interested in learning more about my process, please visit me at yardfarmer.co - Jak na to + styl
Several years ago, I read about bees needing to drink. I had no clue. So I go into the basement and looked through our abandoned craft supplies, find some shiny blue marbly things from Michael's and took them outside to the birdbath. I go back into the house to get more water, come back, and there were the bees! That all took place in under ten minutes! They seemed to have been waiting. This was in southeastern PA during 92 degree weather. Its is incredibly satisfying to watch bees drinking.
I’m sure I sound ridiculous but it never occurred to me that bees drank water until I watched them landing on the side of my pool to drink. It helped me to feel less intimidated by them.
They're pretty mild little creatures, they just want to do their thing! I'm glad you found some peace with them!
Guess what? Ducks either don't, or can't, swallow. To drink water, for instance, they have to tip their heads up and back. Cool, huh? 3rd grade. I'll never forget where + when I learned that lol.🪻📚🌼
Wasp are the same way, they just want to survive!
The humidity - think about that!
@@yardfarmerco Honey bees are perfect backyard visitors. They don't sting unless they feel their nest is threatened, so they usually leave people alone and tend to their hive business. I used to keep bees. Mason bees are also very polite. On the other hand, wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets are horrible and will sting just for the fun of it.
I had my very small townhouse front yard certified! My source of water uses a modestly-priced ($15) solar fountain and a small (maybe 3 feet diameter) rigid "pond" liner ($18) that I sank in the ground. I covered the edges of the rigid liner with pavers and rocks, stacked bricks and rocks inside the liner, topped them with a few pieces of flagstone, and ran tubing from the solar fountain through the stacked flagstone to create a small waterfall. Just at the surface of the water, I positioned a plant saucer (similar to your middle tier) that I filled up with gravel and a couple of flat rocks for the bees and butterflies to land on and drink from. Small birds drink from it, too! The whole set up cost less than $50 (including the price of 3 gorgeous flagstone pieces that I wanted to showcase) and has been going strong for 5 years.
It sounds beautiful! This is one of those posts which makes me wish we could post pictures in the comments!
@thatswhatisaid8908 Thank you. It's a project that I feel very satisfied with, and your encouragement means a lot.
I would’ve loved to have seen you put this together
@@anachen5128 Awww, that's so nice for you to say . I don't have videos to post anywhere, but if it helps, the rigid liner is from Lowe's and the solar water fountain from either eBay or Amazon.
Good for you! I’m glad your townhouse association let you do it. ❤
Thanks for showing us how to do it on a budget. We are all pinching pennies these days. Now we have more to share with our little garden critters! ❤
+1 vote for adding a pond to your yard.
The urge is real!
🎉yes! That way I can learn to add one to mine 😂too
I plan to build a pond one day. But until my kiddo can swim and I feel comfortable letting her play near the pond, this will make an excellent water source! Thank you!
SO happy you enjoyed it! Have fun!
that's an idea...certification. we have a 5-gallon bucket under a solar water heater overflow pipe, surrounded by tall grass so the water stays cool. every year dozens of bees and things stop by for a drink. and yes, we have a way for any larger critters to get out of the bucket if they happened to fall in.
Daryl: I was born in Ogden at McKay Dee Hospital in 1952. We moved to Calif in 1959. Stayed, grew up, married, birthed oldest son, same hospital. Back w him to Calif., stayed and did Life + kids/marriage/career.
Moved w my 15 yo, youngest son, to St George UT, in 1998. Still here, all 3 boys, wives, 3 of 5 grandkids, my 93 yo Mom + & my 60 yo little sister & hubby, all here now.
Glad to find your channel. FABULOUS project.
Thank you for watching!
Your fountain looks amazing! Thanks for sharing this! 💯 ❣️
love love love love this fountain! I'm going to save this video and use it to make one this summer! Thank you so much!
I love this, that is the perfect bubble flow and I am saving this one to do one too! Thank you!
I love this is turned out beautiful! I want a pond so bad too but I think this will be a lovely substitute. Love the water trickling sound.
Very nice! Celebration deserved!
This is my new favorite series. Please update soon!
Beautiful! Love it!!
How stinking cool is that!! Well done and such a great and pretty idea! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Thanks so much! 😊
❤❤❤ I’m glad I found you channel, I mean.😊
Very nice. Perfect for the bee's. Hadn't thought about bees, but now I know what's getting set up very near my Russian Sage bed. They eat heavily in that flower. Smart!
Beautiful! Very nice. Thanks!
Great project. Thank you!!
Marvellous for wild life and especially critically endangered wildlife. All the creatures need water and food. Bush corridors. Thank you!
As usual, great video. We’ve been using metal trash can lids found in the basement. I love watching the birds shake the water off acting as an automatic sprinkler for the plants near by.
Thank you! What a fantastic idea and a great way to repurpose something! I love it!
What a great idea! I think I will have to go trash picking! lol
First time viewer and I’m blown away! Awesome job with great ideas. Thanks!
Thank you so much!
I just found your channel and subscribed, this wildlife fountain looks great and is such a cool project! I have one worry though, the main pot/reservoir could become a deadly trap for any wildlife if they get into it there would be no means of climbing out from the water. Hopefully birds won’t try to bathe inside the big pot and I guess most insects would go only to the trays? Otherwise it depends on what kind of small mammals or amfibians you have and wether they would be able to climb up to that ledge in the first place.
I just found this video. TY!! I can’t wait to make my own.
The ONLY change up I will do is drill a hole on the bottom pot towards the upper area adding a couple holes and allowing drainage for when it rains. Doing it this way, I won’t overload my pump from too much water from rain, allowing any water to remain the level I originally want it to be. Then no adjustments or removal of additional water is required.
It's a beautiful, adorable, effective water source; well done!!
Seed milkweed; it'll take a couple-3 yrs to become what they need to be, for the butterflies. 💛💜❤️💚🌷
The WHOLE pond!! Loved your video and I learned while laughing! 👏
..and brilliant design on the watering feature! I definitely am putting one together!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Are you planning to put anything in the larger bottom pot? It's a drowning hazard for little curious thirsty critters as there is no way out. Covering it with a larger platter will prevent this, or use larger rocks that will sit further up at the mouth of the pot to create those anchors for the critters to sit on, or bathing for the birds. Ensuring of course, that you leave sufficient gaps for the circulation of the water in the reservoir but no crevices that the critters can scurry through.
We did add more rocks to the bottom pot, we just didn't have enough when we recorded this video!
@@yardfarmerco I'm glad to hear that as it is quite distressing finding lifeless critters in the water. Thank you!
Very true! Birds or small critters won't know the depth and can drown. Before I realized this,I had a little sparrow drown in a deep fountain.😢😢
@@melindapierce8234 That is so sad. I'm sorry to hear that. 💔
Great point! Please consider. I had a bucket of city water that I was letting sit to remove dangerous whatevers. Came in a day later and a poor little mouse was dead, floating on his back. I cannot imagine how many times he swam in circles trying to escape from that death trap. I felt like crap for days.
Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful, so inspirational ❤
Thank you so much!
Great Idea, left you an Abo.
Greetings from Germany 🙋♀️🌸
This is an awesome design - thankyou so much! I’ve been trying to work out how to do something very similar but with all the same criteria for wildlife! I live in the north of England in the UK, so we have cool winters, increasingly wetter and less snowy, with variable Spring/Summers which have occasional crazy moments (thx to climate change) which have been up to 31 degrees C, only a handful of times & still get occasional drops to about -10 degrees C with/out snow. So as long as I use frostproof pots (we can buy the exact same ones here) …or… I love zinc metal containers, some ex-agricultural, like 4’ x 18” drinking troughs from farmers’ fields (paid for obvs!) or fire buckets etc, these are mostly rustproof and look great. I’d need to include a doggo drinking fountain element to stop my two English Cocker Spaniels hoovering up bugs or wildlife with their drink! 🤦🏻♀️ And mine is a tiny garden but it has a beautiful part which has an original dry stone wall from a field boundary - perfect to run a pump to so that it comes through a gap in the stones and allows the water to flow in whatever design is required 😃🐶🐝🪲🐞👍🏻
So I’m sitting up in bed, two sleeping doggos next to me, with notebook and pencil, starting to sketch ideas using your terrific solution as a guide.
Now, here’s the thing: … I’m a newish single woman, who happens to have MS, ME, Fibro, etc! … who was married for 30 years (I always did design/measure, he did heavy stuff!), so I’m trying to learn which things I can do by myself … which I’d much prefer obvs! (😁), as I have some personal (very annoying!!!) limitations to my capabilities … and which I have to sub out to *a man* (😡) … preferably without any *mansplaining* (🤬🤬🤬😂)
I’m staying determined and will hopefully achieve my design without any major issues … I also have ADHD, so it would be great to achieve this in the next 12-24 months, rather than the usual purchasing without completion 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🥹😖😬
I shall try to report back 😬😳😁 xxx
I am definitelt making One!!!
This is so cool. I wish I could do this in so cal.
Las year there were two crows that were always trying to drink water from the pool but the could never drink, , because the water is to low for them to reach it.. And I felt so bad fir them and was thinking that it would be nice if I can find something like that for them... hopink that they'll come back this year😅
Because you aren’t seeing the one upside down (just for height) I’d for sure use something free at home as you’ll never see it.
No idea why youtube is pushing this video 9 months later but I’m so glad! I live in south Salt Lake County and I’m taking NOTES on this video. Love how approachable you made this project 💚
Thank you so much, we're so glad you found it! We also have NO IDEA why this video took off over the last few weeks, but we're happy to see it! Happy gardening to you!
I made a fountain out of an old birdbath a neighbor threw away. Sunk a round basin in the garden and put the entire birdbath base inside the basin. Put a piece of old pantyhose around the fountain so it wouldn’t get colony debris falling in. Added river rocks to the birdbath and ran the pump tubing up the middle of the birdbath pedestal. One the water was running I was able to grow moss I found in my back yard in the birdbath as well. We even had goldfish in the bottom basin (until raccoons caught them). It was wonderful listening to the water trickling, seeing birds and pollinators landing and drinking and one of my dogs decided it was her personal drinking fountain as well. Such a fun project!
i love this project! how has it fared in the heat---i sometimes have issues with algae in fountains...?
Good day ! I am glad I have found your video I made one a couple of years with a nice pot but I may need ideas for polinisaters it’s good for birds but I may have to add a top can I send a picture to have ideas
outstanding
Thank you!
really nice !! personally i would have left the bottom plate for the bees and such- maybe a wider plate come to think for that purpose, and left the top plate for birds: i have a soup plate on my balcony and besides drinking, they love to take baths !!!
Wow, beautiful. Can this be done using a solar pump?
CONGRATS! Do we need to make sure plastics, silicones, rubbers, paints, water etc are wildlife safe? My original 1300 gallon dug-by-hand koi pond had a huge liner that was dangerous chemical-free? Awesome site! Can you please clone your husband for me LMAO
Loved your video, Ms. Yardfarmer! You're a natural in front of the camera. You remind me of a Travel CZcamsr (can't think of her channel right now), but you girls have similar personalities and presentation style. It'll come to me. Anyway, good luck to you.
The channel I was thinking of is called Roaming Reckless. Oh, and I subscribed ;)
Great ideas. However, I would silicone all of the inside pieces together to prevent any mishaps. They cam be lifted out as one to service the pump.
Love this. My only concern in the big pot at the bottom if small animals fall in & cant get out. Maybe a stick or two so they can crawl out.?
Great point! We have made some revisions with a bit of mesh to cover the opening since this was published!
Question- how do any critters that fall into the big/ bottom pot get out before drowning?
Love this! You may have said and I missed it, but how often does something like this need to be cleaned? And when it's time do you just take it apart and give it a scrub with a cleaning brush or is there more to it?
Thank you! So far we've just filled it with water when it evaporates, it hasn't really had a chance to get stagnant in the Utah heat. But yeah, when that water gets a little less bright looking, take it apart, empty it out, and give it a good scrub with diluted vinegar! After that dries out you're good to go!
Can I live next to you? Wow!
Is there anywhere you listed the items you used? I don’t see anything. Trying to see how many inches are showing of the second pot from the large pot
How do you keep the water clean? Even with my water pump keeping the water moving, it seems to get green and dirty.
cool
Did you need to do anything to winterize it for your SLC winter temps? That’s always concern for our Colorado winters.
We just drained it and wrapped it up, worked wonderfully!
Was there just water in the biggest base pot?
Depending on origin of glazed pots. The Chinese are notorious for using lead and other heavy metals.
Does this run 24/7? Or do you turn it off at night?
If you soak terra cotta for 24 hours it will help with the rate of absorbtion that the water can cause.
I don’t see how you sealed the pump wiring the bottom of the pot . And why not use solar ?
You buried the electrical cord in the bottom how’s it going to turn on unless it’s solar?
Where is the electrical cord coming out of the bottom pot ?
The only thing I would worry about is lizards falling in the deep basin and getting stuck... Not sure how to fix that
How many times does she have say that we can use things around the house?????
What will silicone do over time to the birds, insects that drink from there?
shouldn’t do anything I would think. Silicone is used for surgeries, hygiene products and baking equipment because it doesn’t react to anything irrespective of moisture or temperature 🤷♀️
I’m not understanding how the pump is powered. ???
How do you keep it clean?
The best way is vinegar and water, about 1 part vinegar to 9 parts water. Run that through the cycle, let it circulate a little, drain it off and let it dry before refilling.
@@yardfarmerco Thank you yardfarmerco
This is really cool, but to take care of it and keep it from getting slimy you would have to treat that water water with some type of chemicals that might not be safe for insects, etc. to drink.
I noticed that any type of beads are or containers you have water and can get really nasty slimy even smelly get debris from the air in it. It’s just not appealing. And ends up being a lot of work to keep it all clean the marbles get slimy.
I learned from having floating candles and different types of beads and rocks, etc. in water just on my big coffee table with candles that it’s a maintenance!
I’m looking for one percent maintenance! I guess I wouldn’t mind having something but this is way too complicated for me. Maybe a little one that’s already together and connected and you just buy the little unit for 50 bucks you set it on your countertop you plug it in or out on your patio and you plug it in and that’s good !😅
Reason number one I can bring it in the house in winter time. I live in Michigan well that means you get about 2 1/2 months three months maybe of summer and then the rest is cold and hot spring cold and hot fall. And then a long winter so it won’t be I don’t want anything. I have to deal with for winter .
I have dogs so anything that’s 12 inches or lower might get peed on outdoors!!
Once upon a time I used to like all these types of projects now I just like to buy some nice plants. I can sit around outside on my deck when I’m sitting in my swing chair watching the birds at the birdfeeder and the birdbath and some candles I might have out in the evening time and then everything could be brought in easily for winter. I did all these things years ago but anymore I just don’t have the energy or the desire so I’m looking for stuff that’s one percent maintenance or less.😅. It’s my time to relax the rest of my life.😊
Hummingbirds I am having issues. I have food out.
water feature.. Irs one thing to build another to maintain properly or else the living things drinking from it can get seriously sick or die
Oh my fucking God. They'll eat hornworms?!!?! My cats brought like 20 hummingbird moths in my house this year, I was expecting to need to hunt hornworms with a blacklight, like, daily to have ANY tomatoes. I haven't found a single one! All hail my new happy waspy best friends!
Yay!
Get a used kiddie pool free or real cheap and use that for a pond
But the prettiest pot is covered up.
Very nice fountain. Probably would have to be more sturdy if you have a "cat" pollinator.
Yeah, it's pretty stable with water in it for sure, but something like a cat or raccoon is going to cause some issues! In that case I would recommend using a waterproof caulk to keep all the parts together, but that eliminates the ability to take it apart for troubleshooting.
You could always just move to China or Dubai
I love it but see one hitch. We have larger critters (mostly the raccoon variety) that come by for a drink also and they would knock that apart in no time so it would have to be immovable. 🥲
Raccoons are DEFINITELY a design flaw for this! There are ways around it, but I'm pretty sure the raccoons would be taking notes and figure it out!