Turn Your Favorite Statues Into Custom Fountains With This Clever DIY

A fountain brings style and function to your garden. It can mute the sounds of suburban or city life and create a relaxing outdoor space. Fountains also provide a water source for wildlife and help keep hummingbirds clean and hydrated. However, typical fountains can be expensive and difficult to install. To combat these issues, a garden designer from Gardening with Ish demonstrated an easy and cheap way to build a custom fountain with any plastic garden statue. All you need is a water source, a solar fountain with a battery, plastic tubing to fit the fountain, and a drill. Solar fountain pumps often come with a spout to shoot up jets of water, but you'll be attaching tubing here instead to route the water through your statue.

Most plastic garden statues are hollow, so you only need to drill a hole where you want the water to go in, usually the bottom, and come out. The statue in the video is a cute dog, and the water is coming out of its mouth. The hole should be slightly larger in diameter than the tubing. After you finish drilling, feed the plastic tubing through the holes. To make this easier, insert a wire, such as a straightened coat hanger, first. Tape the tubing to the wire and pull it back through. The tube should be approximately even with the hole where the water will come out of the statue.

On the underside, where the water will go into the statue, leave enough length for it to reach the solar fountain in the water. This will depend on where you're going to place your statue and the type of water source you're using. You can also create a DIY solar-powered stone fountain for your yard if you don't already have a water source. 

Although plastic garden statues are cheap and easy to find, some of them aren't very durable. A fountain made from one of these probably won't last longer than a season or two. You can create a more permanent water fountain by using sturdier materials. Concrete statues are usually easy to find at thrift stores and yard sales. You can follow a similar process as for the plastic statue, but you'll need a masonry bit to drill the holes. Concrete statues aren't completely hollow, but they may be hollow in the center. If not, you can drill all the way through with a long masonry bit. Resin statues also make a good alternative. They're sturdier than thin plastic but not as difficult to drill as concrete. 

Another way you can make your fountain last longer is by using a submersible pump instead of a solar fountain. Small solar fountains are easy to use and inexpensive, but, like the plastic statues, usually don't last very long. They also aren't very powerful, so your water flow may be weak. A submersible pump has more power and can move more water. They're rated based on how many gallons per hour they can pump. The higher the number, the stronger the pump. You can buy solar or electric submersible pumps. You'll need access to an outlet for an electric pump, but they offer predictable performance and impressive water flow. Solar-powered pumps cost less and are easier to maintain, but you need direct sunlight for them to work well.

Of course, you don't have to limit yourself to statues as a focal point. Using smooth stones can create a stunning water feature that makes any backyard feel more modern.