Is It Possible To Create

A Beautiful Water Feature

In Just A Couple Of Hours Or Less?

 

Absolutely it is!

 

Allow me to introduce you to the world of container water features… where you can design any look you desire! Add any and all of the same features that an in-ground pond installation would have but without all the hassle of digging or using pond liners.

We are talking about fountains of all types, fish, aquatic plants, submersible lighting, and more.

What Type Of Water Feature Best Suits Your Style And Landscape?

Let’s start with the container.

The most popular choices today are half-whiskey barrels, galvanized tubs, glazed ceramics, stone troughs, and low-profile weathered steel bowls.

The container you choose will usually depend on the style of water feature you desire. Let’s look at some inspiring examples:

You Could Go Rustic

Half whiskey barrels are sold locally at home centers and landscape nurseries and often larger stores with a garden department will also carry the plastic liners that fit into the barrels. The plastic insert makes them water-tight and useful as a nice container water garden.

Galvanized cattle troughs are available online and at most farm and feed stores. Like whiskey barrels, these metal troughs are a nice size and can accommodate an assortment of plants.

Galvanized tin buckets are more widely available at stores and although smaller than a cattle trough, they are still large enough for a couple of plants and/or fish.

Try Something Traditional

Stone troughs have been used to provide water to field and farm animals for centuries. For an ancient looking texture, you can form one of these yourself using a cement mixture called hypertufa. (Read more about making many garden objects using hypertufa here).

Take inspiration from Japanese stone water basins. These basins were traditionally located in the meditation gardens outside of ancient Buddhist temples. Water is drawn out using a bamboo ladle, and you can find them cheaply available online.

Modern & Contemporary

Place one of these beautiful container water features on a patio, deck, a garden path, or a drab spot in the garden that could use a focal point. Most popular these days are low-profile cor-ten (weathered steel, see image below) steel bowls and also brightly colored glazed ceramic containers of all shapes.

Experiment With The Exotic

You don’t have to limit yourself to smaller pond plants if you choose a medium to larger sized container. This opens up an opportunity to plant many large tropical foliage plants. You will probably only be able to grow one or two plants per container but they make a dramatic statement.

One popular source for design inspiration these days is the Balinese style. Bali is a region of Thailand in south east Asia. This style sometimes uses small statues of Buddha with a heavy use of large tropical pond plants like the Taro plant and Red-Stemmed Thalia (pictured below on the bottom left). Taro plants are more commonly known as Elephant Ears, and if you didn’t know, yes, you can grow them and many other common landscape plants submerged in water!

For a list of the most colorful pond plants, see our Aquatic Plant Gallery.

Start With These Simple D.I.Y. Tips

Make it easy by using a few shortcuts:

#1. Choose floating water plants. This way you will not have to use soil. Floating aquatic plants get their nutrients directly from the water. Water lettuce is a good choice (see image below), also try Amazon frogbit. Water hyacinth is a floater that has nice blue and white flowers.

#2. If you want to make a fountain, small fountain kits just for the purpose of making a container fountain are sold online and in some stores. In some cases they also come with submersible lights and the container itself, but you can just buy a fountain head with pump and choose whatever kind of container you want to use separately if you wish.

For more ideas on container fountains, see our article on the best ideas for container fountains.

#3. You can start with goldfish or rosy red minnows in your new container pond, they are the easiest to care for. See more types of fish you can use and how to care for them here.

#4. There are many floating decorations you could add to a patio pond, like gorgeous hand-blown glass pond orbs (see image above), votive candles, miniature statuary (like frogs, mermaids, etc.), and floating or submersible L.E.D. lights.

More Resources For Container Water Gardens

See a short how-to video.

How to Seal Any Type Of Container.

Return to the blog page.