My wife and I have been talking for years about adding a small fountain to our yard. Since we started clearing our Zone 0 in the past two years, our search for a fountain has taken a lot more urgency. The problem always was access: fountains are very heavy, and our backyard does not have access for machinery of any size.
The story
We finally solved the access problem last week, and immediately went to a landscaping yard to buy what we expected would be a small fountain to add to our newly cleared Zone 0.
Unexpectedly, we fell in love with a much larger fountain than we expected, one that in no way could fit in our Zone 0. It is rare enough for the both of us to fall in love with anything that has to do with landscaping, so we bought it. We had it delivered yesterday, and had it professionally installed today. Instead of going into our Zone 0, it ended up smack in the middle of our Zone 1: the whole fountain, circled with its moss rock stones, is roughly 10 ft in diameter. The fountain rock alone is about 4.5x3.5, and a bit more than a ton.
The project
This is what we had to do in order to make it work:
- find a fountain we love
- figure out a way to get it delivered in our backyard, close enough to where it will end up
- remove a portion of the fence to take it through
- bring AC power near the location of the fountain, so as to be able to power the pump (we did it earlier in the week)
- buy pump, tubing for the pump, liner, liner felt, plastic underwater blocks for the fountain, pebbles for the recycling “pond” (there is no pond, just a small water recycling area), by large rocks to line the underbody of the liner, small rocks to line the edge of the liner, some soil to use around the liner. (we had everything delivered at the same time)
- find a good install team
- while we do plan to eventually put in an auto-refill system (where you do not need to replenish the water more or less once per week), we have not done it yet.
The result
We are pleased as punch with the result! Here is what it looks like:
From the North
From the South
From the balcony: top view
The budget
We were expecting to purchase a much smaller fountain, so our budget ended up being a lot larger than we expected. I will list below what we actually spent, but also what I feel that a zone-0-sized project would have cost.
| Actual Project - Budget item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Fountain itself, already drilled, about 1.25 ton | $1800 |
| AC service to the location in the yard | $800 |
| liner | $550 |
| Plastic blocks | $300 |
| Surround rocks—large | $350 |
| Surround rocks—small | $450 |
| Pebbles, small | $225 |
| Pump, tubing | $225 |
| Delivery to roadside | $55 |
| Remove fence section, replace | $200 |
| Place the fountain and landscaping material | $700 |
| Landscaping installation | $1,300 |
| Total with incidentals and tax | $7,800 |
If, instead, we had purchased a much smaller fountain suitable for Zone 0, we figure that the budget would have been as follows
| Zone 0 Project - Budget item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Fountain itself, already drilled, about 0.45 ton | $1,200 |
| AC service to the location in the yard | $400 |
| basin | $400 |
| Plastic blocks | $150 |
| Surround rocks—large | $200 |
| Surround rocks—small | $150 |
| Pebbles, small | $100 |
| Pump, tubing | $225 |
| Delivery to roadside | $55 |
| Place the fountain and landscaping material | $500 |
| Landscaping installation | $800 |
| Total with incidentals & tax | $4,900 |
We are very happy with the fountain. We should have bought and installed it years ago, really!