About three weeks ago, some friends asked if I would stop by and give them some planting ideas. While looking over their newly cleared hill, they mentioned the 1916 kitchen sink taken out of their Victorian house and how it was taking up too much room in the garden shed. Well, thirty dollars later (and they delivered it too!) I was the proud owner of a very heavy, cast iron, porcelain kitchen sink.
Of course when I bought it, I really wasn’t sure what I would do with it – but it was just too wonderful to pass up. So, for the next week I moved it around the yard in my head and finally settled on the wall next to my Garden Room Deck. It would be a potting sink, close to my Garden Room and handy to the hose.
The night before we mounted the sink on the wall, I found a great white wood trellis in a neighbor’s trash while out walking our Labby girls, and hauled it home. Another great find, already the perfect kind of shabby, too!
The next morning the sink went up on the wall and we put the trellis right above it. The combination looked great and I was very excited to have a place to clean my pots and transplant without making such a mess inside. But then someone mentioned that it might make a good fountain, and the wheels started turning again.
Off to the hardware store for clear tubing, silicone and a pump, which cost about $30. I already had a 5-gallon bucket and there was an electrical receptacle right next to the sink to boot! Carefully threading the tubing through one side of the faucet, I then squirted silicone all around the tubing so there wouldn’t be any backwash inside the faucet. It dried for a couple of hours (while I spread mulch) and then I connected the tubing to the pump, filled the bucket and slipped the recirculating, submersible pump into the filled 5-gallon bucket. Strategically placed under the sink’s drain, the bucket catches the water and then sends it back up to the faucet again.
A nice surprise was that I discovered that I could control the amount of flow using the faucet handle. It is a good idea to get a pump that is adjustable, but I don’t have to even use that feature now. A white bungee cord was stretched around the sink base and I pinned a couple of aprons (from a yard sale, of course!) to it to skirt the sink and hide the pump set-up.
The final touches were some pots, a few plants and a bowl to catch the water so birds can get a drink. When I want to just wash pots, all I have to do is unplug the pump, wash away, then refill the bucket and turn it on again. I am one happy camper ! My kitchen sink looks good, sounds good and was way less money than most commercial fountains. It’s also one of a kind!
Original article and pictures take ourfairfieldhomeandgarden.com site
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