Makeshift Engineer
The fully-planted windowsill garden
DIYGarden

Windowsill Garden: Part 3 — Testing and Installation

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Testing for watertightness

After assembling the base components of my windowsill water garden, it was time to test for leaks and see if it could actually circulate water as intended. I placed the entire rig in my shower, filled the tubs with water and started up the pump. Lo and behold, it worked! The water circulated at a nice rate, it made a nice babbling brook sound, and there were no leaks. Hurray for hotglue!

The water pumping working like a champ!
The water pump working like a champ! And more importantly, no leaks!

Now that I knew the basic mechanics worked, it was time to finish off the details. I wanted a special feature at the top from which the water would come out, but wasn’t exactly sure what form this would take. Whatever it was, it had to be cheap and easy to implement. No expensive, fancy water features here!

Some cheap pots to make the fountainhead out of
Some cheap pots to make the fountainhead out of

A quick trip to my local nursery turned up some cheap pots that were just the right size and shape for me to build into something interesting.

Fountainhead made from some cheap pots
Fountainhead made from some cheap pots

After stacking and sticking them together with hot glue, I had the fountainhead I wanted.

The water garden build completed
The water garden build completed

After installing the fountainhead onto the containers and running the water tube up the middle of the pots, which conveniently already had holes in them, it was time for one final leak test.

Final leak test completed!
Final leak test completed!

Everything checked out just fine! Hooray!!! Now that the base of the water garden was done, I placed it on my windowsill and stocked it with some water plants I bought at the plant nursery.

The final windowsill water garden!
The final windowsill water garden!

The final water garden with all the plants inside.

The final windowsill garden!
The final windowsill garden!

The next day, I went back to the nursery and bought some more plants to fill in the container next to the water garden. Overall, I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. I expect the water plants to eventually fill out the containers to make things look even lusher, but that will take some time.

The fully-planted windowsill garden
The fully-planted windowsill garden

All told, I spent around US$40 for everything for this project. That includes the containers, associated hardware, plants, gravel, and soil for the garden. Not bad for a little piece of meditative space.

Lots of green leafy plants to calm down the soul
Lots of green leafy plants to calm down the soul

What I love best about this is the gentle trickling sound of water. I has a very calming and meditative effect. After the plants have had a chance to grow a bit, I even might add some fish.

This fountain makes a nice babbling brook sound. Very meditative!
This fountain makes a nice babbling brook sound. Very meditative!

Stay tuned for updates on how this garden grows!