SETTING UP A MONOLITH WATER FEATURE: The tricks of the trade

There is no doubt that a water feature makes the perfect focal point in a garden. In a small garden where there are pets and children, the difficulty is finding something safe and in the current trends, something that looks natural and informal. A stone feature gushing water that flows down its surface onto some surrounding pebbles is the perfect solution.

However many people may be put off a moving water feature on the basis that they think they may need regular topping up, but if the feature, like this monlith stone, is cleverly installed it will use hardly any water, even on a hot and sunny day. Besides that even if there was a hosepipe ban in the region at some future date, the law does not prevent you from topping up your pond or water feature. In fact a feature like this can actually save you water in the garden by providing a humid micro-climate for surrounding plants that will actually help them to tolerate less watering. There was good reason for the central water features used in the fantastic enclosed gardens of the arid areas of the Middle East where many of the concepts of the garden were borne.
So if a monolith fits the bill exactly, water garden centres and builder's merchants have a huge selection of drilled stones. Pumps and fittings are probably best sourced from the water garden centres. At this time of year there seems to a particular flurry of sales of monoliths at water garden centres and when many people get them home they find that after installing them that they lose water exceedingly rapidly, they dry out, the pump may even burn out as a result and the whole thing has become a very disappointing and expensive excercise.

So you need a couple of simple tricks to help reduce the water loss and some simple tips to bear in mind when you are setting up. After all, with all these magical looking features, very often the secrets lie in the preparation and that exra bit of work you put in at the beginning that never gets seen, but makes all the difference when it comes to the final preformance.

REQUIREMENTS

Good strong powerful submersible pump capable of delivering 1000 gallons per hour to 3ft or 5000 litres to 1metre.
A waterproof power supply to the site of installation.
A sump and grill and an offcut of pool liner that will cover the immediate area where water might splash from the feature.
Enough tubing of the widest gauge that can be threaded through the water feature.
AND of course the water feature.

If water regulations about hose pipe get even more draconian in the future, it may be a good idea to plumb in some water direct to the sump with a piece of plastic piping from the outside mains tap. I did with this one and had a tiny 'ballcock style' top-up device and a tap hidden amongst the pebbles.

METHOD   

(Click on the pics to enlarge them)

Sump is lowered onto a bed of sand and levelled and back filled.	First of all, mark out the position of the sump, ensuring there will be a flattish area around the circumference. Excavate a hole for it, slightly wider and deeper than you imagine and nestle the sump in on a bed of sand. This will help you get it level. Then backfill with soil around the circumfrence.
A splash pad is laid over the surrounding soil	Ensure the surrounding soil slopes gently in towards the sump. I made the ground up to the top of the supporting grill with some Readimix mortar. NB: Make sure the grill is not set in solid before the concrete goes off completely.
The pump and hose are fitted	Install a good quality powerful pump with a ‘flow control’ and attach an appropriate length of the largest hose that you can thread through the hole in the monolith. The pump can rest on a brick or stone if the inlet need to bee above the base of the sump to prevent it from sucking up dirt or stones. However this one can sit flat on the base since the intake is already raised from the base and is filtered. A waterproof connection for the power cable is essential. It is safer if this is a fused switch. Also the there is the usual reminder that this mains power should be separate from the domestic supply in the house and have a sensitive RCCD between this unit and the mains. Get a professional electrician to install power to the outside of the house, especially if there are other people apart from yourself likely to use the garden.
The monolith arrives courtesy of Dave Hewlitt, strong man and manager of Blagdon Water Gardens	Get a human powerhouse like Dave Hewlitt (manager at Blagdon Water Gardens) to help you get the feature into place. Bearing in mind that this monolith is well over 300lbs, it is not going to be the easiest thing to move, so you can see the advantage of this little trap door in the sump grill to enable you to get to the pump for future maintenance. Also you can appreciate the value of getting a good strong sump grill and sump.
The maximum size tubing possible is pushed up through the monolith.	Tip the monolith over and thread through the largest diameter hose that is possible to get through the monolith, and that the pump can take. This will allow the pump to perform at its most efficient. It can be wedge in place at the top with small stones to ensure the jet rises vertically. Sometimes a carefully injected bead of siicon will help hold it in place.
A scrap piece of liner material will help waterproof the splash pad.	Cover the area with a piece of scrap pond liner that will cover the splash pad area has a hole slightly smaller than the sump area. This will help to direct any water that splashes out to flow back to the sump. This is the hidden element that will save you so much of the water that spashes off the stone.
The pebbles are poured into place. Ensure they are larger in diameter than the holes in the grill.	Put the grill trap door in place and cover the whole area with attractive pebbles. Ensure the pebbles are larger in diameter that the sump grill holes. If you have to have smaller pebbles, then you can cover the grill with a smaller mesh wire or plastic netting. If you do, make regular checks to ensure that it is not getting clogged up with leaves or detritus.
Stone monoliths or pebble fountains make the perfect water feature for any garden.	The feature is pretty maintenance free unless you dont like the accumulation of algae on the surface of the monolith, in which case you can buy relatively harmless chemicals from your aquatic centre that keep ornaments algae free. Also make sure the water level is always well above the pump in the sump. I've used various methods in the past that have included electronic and mechanical float switches and they have all let me down. That includes the type of pumps that you get with automatic float switches. Mechanical is better than electronic, since when they go wrong they cease to function gradually and so you get some sort of warning. Also mechanicla switching devices are repairable, whereas electronic switches conk out either on or off. Either way has a potential for causing a disproportionate disaster. The mechanical top up switch i had on this feature gave out on the first day. It was important that this feature should be seen from a long way of and therefore a larger amount of water was coming through the stone and in consequence splasing far and wide. It was also meant to be running all day and for part of the night aswell and therefore it was bound to use up water continuously. So over a priod of time it was estimated just how much water it did use and the hidden tap that controlled the supply of top up water through hidden plastic piping was set at the mearest trickle. So far (2 years) this hass proved adequate in keeping up with the water lost from the feature. One method of viewing the maximum and minimum water level was to set a plastic tube through the grill that is held in place with thick rubber 'o' rings. Inside the tube I float a fishermans float. Where the float is at minimum waterlevel I mark the tube and this tells me when it is time to fillup the sump.