Fountain and Flower Pot

The challenge: My wife had made a ceramic birdbath years ago, and I decided that we should use it. I put a small fountain in it, but frankly it was boring. So I decided it needed flowers.

The approach: That led me to the idea of aquatic plants with a fountain. The plants want a saturated soil, and they can tolerate the climate in Houston.

The implementation: The design is pretty simple. I took some aluminum square tubes with 1/8” wall thickness. A 4”x4” in the center. Four 4”x4” on each side of that. 2.5”x2.5” in the corners, and three 1.75”x 1.75” in the center 4”x4” to create the fountain. I used a marine grade adhesive to glue all of these parts together, and finished it off with some Rust-Oleum hammered green paint. (update - the paint has not weathered the winter well. Not sure if I did not prep the surface well, or if I am simply using the wrong paint.)

In the bottom of the tubes that I wanted to use as planters, I machined a plate with holes to allow water through. As you can see, the planter sits in water, so there will always be water seeping in from the bottom. To keep the soil from going out these holes, I put in a sheet of filter material (Frost King 15” x 24” x 3/16” foam filter). It should allow water through and help hold the soil in the pot.

Also you will note that I machined spillways out of 1” x 1” aluminum bar stock.

Improvements: If I was building this again. I would lower the spillways with respect to the top of each stage of the fountain. Thus preventing the tower from completely filling. I would also extend the spillways horizontally by about 0.25” inches to have the water land closer to the center of the next stage.