Needing novel ideas for a cheap garden water feature.

[Inastate]

I'm trying to help my mam out with this one.

She wants to make a water feature in the garden.

You know when people use buckets, plant pots, empty wine barrels and the likes and fill them with water, and place pond plants in.

She wants to do this and put a water lilly in, some fish, and a marginal plant or two.

I love the idea of this little project but the designated products sold for this purpose are generally pretty expensive.

Does anybody have some novel ideas of what you can use instead to save money? The container would need to be big enough to hold the fish and the water lilly/other plants. We're just focussing on getting a suitable container for now.

Surely other people have come up against this problem!

Any suggestions, examples of your own work or searching tips?

Thanks for your help, as ever!

[Nicos]

On our first allotment we managed to get hold of an old corner bath . Worked a treat as a pond, and was free and easy to make watertight
Not sure if it'd be big enough as a reservoir to put a pump in for a water feature though?

[Stan79]

Freecycle and ebay are probably your best bets.

[Guest]

Go to a local merchants and see if they have a damaged bath (chipped preferably) seal up the plug hole and you can either sink it in the ground or have it raised and clad it with cheap screening.

[Nicos]

Maybe contact a bathroom company to see if they are throwing out an old bath which they are replacing?

Can you ask on free cycle/ preloved or can you only offer things?

[muddled]

I would suggest a day out to your local salvage yard.

Search for the address on gurgle,
set an agreed 'absolutely not going to go over' budget
take your mum there for an interesting morning out, pottering around and looking at weird stuff
buy something rather unique/old/quirky that you can line with a butyl offcut and fill with water.
Grab a pub lunch on the way home .

Your mum will be the envy of all her friends and every time she looks at her water featuure she'll remember a wonderful day out with you .

[Nicos]

What a lovely idea muddled!
I quite fancy joining them!

[Potstubsdustbins]

If you know a plumber ask them, we have to pay to get rid of old baths, tanks etc.

[SkyChild]

I've got one in an old tea urn! Not big enough for fish though.
Freegle/gumtree/plumbers/salvage yard. Go for a good old wander and a prod about and see what you can find Even if someone's got something interesting in a skip - ask them and see if you can have it

[PyreneesPlot]

Not very helpful, but if you fancy extending your day out a bit, I have a spare tin bath you are very welcome to ...

[Bigmallly]

I made one of these out of a chrome sphere (£4 from B&M) drilled holes in both ends, ran pipe through & attached a cheap solar pump.................£9 from Amazon. Put it in a bowl, fill with gravel................lubbly jubbly.........

[muddled]

love that Bigmally,
where exactly is B&M?

[Bigmallly]

Sorry Muddled, I'm getting Muddled. It must be rubbing off..................
It was actually Homebargains but they have sold out...........................However there are some great deals here:

Stainless Steel Garden Ornaments | eBay

[rary]

I once made a fish pond with the internal lining of a large fridge sunk into the ground (you could keep it above ground if you build a retaining wall round it) I plugged a hole in the casing and spread a sheet of black poly. over it and filled it with water I had that for quite a while with out any problems