How to make a Japanese water feature
Making a Japanese water feature doesn't have to be difficult or expensive. Here's how I made mine.
These are step by step instructions to build your own Japanese water feature. They describe the method I used for the tsukubai water feature in my own Japanese garden, but you could adapt them for any kind of Japanese water feature; for example, to make a shishi odoshi, you can just use a shishi odoshi and some pebbles instead of the stone basin.
Here's what you need to make your japanese water feature:
- A stone basin These come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and styles. See the stone basins page for examples and information.
- A bamboo spout When choosing which size to buy, remember that you'll need to bury it at least a foot into the ground to make it stable. Bamboo tends to split when it gets wet, so you may want to varnish or oil your spout before use.
- A plastic tub This needs to be significantly wider across than your Japanese water feature (stone basin or whatever you're using), so that the water will run off the basin and into the tub. That's probably about 10 gallons, or three feet across. It needs to be very sturdy, becaue it's got to bear the weight of the metal grid and the stone basin and whatever rocks you place over the grid. You can get these from a lot of gardening suppliers and specialist water-feature suppliers – look for 'rigid plastic reservoirs' – they're usually black. This one at Amazon is only $14.99.
- A metal grid It needs to be larger than the diameter of your tub, because it's going to sit on top of it. It also needs to be sturdy enough to bear the weight of your stone basin. You can get these from water feature suppliers/
- A pump You can buy small pumps from any large gardening supplier. The thing to check is the head height, which is the vertical distance that the pump can carry water. When calculating what head height you need, remember that the surface of the water in the reservoir will be below ground, so you need a measurement from that point to the top of the bamboo spout.
- Some hose To carry the water from the tub up through the spout
- Some small pebbles These usually come in bags which tell you the area each bag will cover, which is handy for working out how many you need.
- A drill with large bits
- Some tubing to protect the cabling of the pump
- Rocks or boulders These surround the basin area – see the tsukubai page for more information.
- A level
- Some sand to place under the tub
1. First plan the layout of your Japanese water feature (see the tsukubai page for a typical layout). Are you going to have a stone basin and bamboo pipe? Are you going to place rocks around it? Will you want to plant a few plants between the rocks? Plan it out roughly and work out how much space you will need for it.
2. Next work out where your Japanese water feature is going. At the least you need a large enough area to dig a hole big enough for the tub to sit in – if you're placing rocks and plants around it you will need more. I like to lay the main elements of my water feature out on the actual site so I can see if I'm happy with them before I start any digging. When I'm happy I take a quick snapshot or sketch before I clear them to one side for the next stage.
3. Plan the power line. I like to bury my cable, so I protect by running it through a plastic pipe or hose from the water feature site to the power point – you don't want anyone accidentally running a fork into the ground and hitting the cable! So, your tubing needs to run from a point near the water feature to a grounded outdoor power point. You won't be able to run the pump's cable through till it's settled in the tub, so before you place the protective tubing, run a long, strong piece of twine or string through it (gaffa tape it to either end for now so you can't posibly lose it). Later, you will use this to draw the cable through the tubing.
4. Drill two holes in your plastic tub, perhaps two inches below the rim, and 1-2 inches in diameter. One is for your pump power cable and the other is for your water hose, so think about where to make them – one needs to go near the end of the protective tubing you laid for your power cable, and the other needs to go near where your bamboo spout is going to be.
5. Dig a hole big enough for your tub. The rim of the tub needs to sit at least a couple of inches below ground level. Insert the tub in the hole, rotating it till the holes you just drilled are in the right places. This is your underground reservoir. Check that it's level before you go on by laying a piece of wood across the top and placing a spirit level on top. If it's not level, take it out and pour some sand in the bottom – this will make it easier to fidget the tub till it is level.
6. Place a clean brick or two at the bottom of the tub, and place your pump on top of it. Run the cable for the pump up through the hole you drilled in step 4. Now you can pull the cable through the protective tubing you laid in step 3, so take the gaffa tape of the near end and tie or tape the end of the cable to the end of the twine. Now take the gaffa tape off the end near the power point, and pull gently on the twine to draw the cable all the way through. Now you can connect it to your powerpoint.
7. Work out how tall your bamboo spout needs to be. It's going to be sunk into the ground, so it needs to be at least a foot longer than the visible length. Drill a hole in the upright part, at a point which is going to be below ground level when it's placed, and wide enough to comfortably fit your hose through. Now you will need to varnish or oil your bamboo spout (see the note at the top of the page), and wait for it to dry or absorb.
8. Attach the hose to the outlet of the pump, and run it through the other hole you drilled in the tub in step 4. Run this hose up through your bamboo spout. You want it to stop only just short of being visible, so see how much extra you have and trim it down if need be, or loop the extra at the base. Bury the base of the spout to the desired depth, or just place it roughly for now if the hole you dug is very large! Make sure that the end of the spout is above the place where your stone basin will be, so the water will pour into the basin.
9. At this point it's a good idea to test the pump, so half-fill the tub with water, switch on the power, and make sure the water's coming steadily out of the spout. Adjust any settings on the pump till the water's flowing at the rate you want. Once you're happy, turn off the pump at the power point – you don't want to have to go back into the tub after this point if you can help it.
10. Fill the soil in around the base of the spout and the tub to the level of the rim of the rub. Place the metal grid on top of the tub and level the soil around it. Place the stone basin on top of the grid. Now place any large rocks you're using in your arrangement, and plant any plants. Scatter your decorative pebbles around the basin so that they cover that ugly old metal grid.
11. When everything's in place, you can turn the power back on. The water will pour from the spout into the stone basin, and then overflow back into the reservoir.
If you don't plan to have your water feature running 24 hours a day, you'll need to put some clear water chemical in the water to stop it going green. You can get this from any garden centre.
