Kitchen Countertop

water garden before the plants were added around the tub.

Water garden after plants were placed after plants were placed around the tub.

They are starting on my counter tops today! I will post "before" and "after" pictures of this project. I took pictures this morning of my new water garden. I arranged a few of my plants around the tub to hide the cord that comes from the pump. I haven't decided yet which plants I will leave around the tub. It takes me awhile to decide on which ones look the best.

If you haven't tried making a water garden, it is so easy to make.

You will need a small pump that pumps 60 - 70 gallons of water per hour. You will see on the side of the box 60 gph. Make sure that your pump is adjustable. This is important so that you can control the flow of water into the waterfall fixture. Then you have to decide what you will want your water fixture to be. I picked this tub because I already had it. But there are tons of other things to use such as a pretty glazed pot(you need to make sure it doesn't have any holes in the bottom), a whiskey barrel, a birdbath, and the list goes on. Basically anything that will hold water and is deep enough for the pump to be submersible. Then you buy a aquatic plants and a small bag of river rock or pebbles. There are several items to choose for the waterfall. You can use old pottery pitchers, bamboo waterfalls, Home Depot and Lowe's has different things like fish, frogs, etc. that you can attach your pump and those make cute water falls. If you choose a fish or one of those fixtures for you water fall you will need a small piece of 1/2" or 3/8" plastic tubing. They also sell the tubing that you need for those items.

I used a small black water spout that was around $12.00. This connects directly onto the pump so you don't need tubing if you use this type of water fall. You could make a cute water garden for a table top with these same tools just pick a fixture for your water this shorter and smaller so that it fits on your table. This is nice when you are sitting on your porch and you can turn the water garden on and it's very relaxing and soothing to hear the sound of water trickling.

I would love to see some of the water gardens that some of you have created. So share if you would like! Have a Wonderful Wednesday!