Last week, we bought a beautiful water fountain. I have never had one before so I have a lot of questions about keeping it clean etc. and was wondering if anyone here could help me. Do you keep the fountain running all of the time or do you unplug it at night or when you are not home? How do you keep it clean from debris settling on the bottom? How often should I clean the pump? Is there anything else I should know about fountains? Our new fountain ( photo / image / picture from Canadian Chelsea's Garden )
Beautiful fountain Chelsea. I always unplugged my fountain at night or when we were away overnight because we have so many birds in our yard they were drinking from it and normal evaporation occurring and I didn't want it to run out of water and burn out the pump. The debris is going to settle on the bottom so you just have to scoop it up when you see it. You could get into a routine of cleaning the pump every week just to be on the safe side, but normally mine would get cleaned when we noticed the water was not flowing as strongly as it should. If birds or critters come to drink out of it they might help keep the mosquito population down but to be on the safe side get some Mosquito Dunks. About 1/4th of one will keep a fountain that size larvae free for about a month.
What a beautiful thing your new fountain is Chelsea. You have created a wonderful oasis for wildlife to come and have a drink. The plants round about will also give them sanctuary if there are preditors about.
CC you have a beautiful fountain. I have always wished for one as I think they add so much to a garden.
Toni, thank you for all your great advice. I will definately get some of those mosquito pucks. Thank you all for the nice comments about the fountain too. I was lucky to find it. While my wonderful husband and I were shopping at Home Depot for some baseboards, I wandered (on purpose ; ) ) into the garden centre to see if there were any good sales. I'm looking for more Russian Sage plants and was hoping to find them at a big discount. While I was looking around, I saw a sign saying 50% off fountains. Needless to say, I HAD to stop and check out the prices since I have always wanted a fountain. There were a lot of them around $200 - $300 sale price. Sadly, out of my price range. Then I discovered some big boxes at the back of the warehouse. To my delight, they were fountains. The fountain we have is one of them and only cost us $100. I'm such a lucky lady!!!
Very beautiful fountain you've got there. I think cleaning the pump once per month or when you notice problems is fine enough. A water that's not clear or is too calcic may cause you to clean more often.
