Temporarily out of commission

Our backyard fountain, inherited with the garden, is a focal point.  It features prominently in many of my photos, particularly my quarterly wide shots.

This photo was taken in preparation for my last wide shots post, published in April

The fact that it's beloved by the birds is even more important.

One of many photos taken of the birds splashing in the fountain.  This one was taken in September 2021.

 

Regrettably, the raccoons like to hang out there too.

The most common sign that raccoons have paid us a visit are the scattered shells they drop in and around the fountain.  Occasionally I've caught them in the act.  This photo of a mother and baby was taken in 2020 through the living room window.  Once a raccoon even stole the fountain's filter, only to drop it yards away elsewhere in the garden.  It took us days to find it.

Last weekend, the fountain pump broke down. We had to take the entire fountain apart to verify that the pump was the problem.  This gave us the "opportunity" to clean it out.  Cleaning it is a tedious and time-consuming process.

We clean the bottom section in place after pumping out the water and scooping the sludge that's settled to the bottom after several months of operation.  We scrub each of the parts with a non-toxic cleaner and set them in the sun to dry.  This includes the concrete bricks we've used to protect the pump and the filter from tampering on the part of the raccoons.  I also clean the rocks and seashells, which provide the birds a perch on the top tier of the fountain.

 

We've replaced the pump three times before.  Getting a new one by mail order took a couple of days.  However, putting the fountain back together once it was received didn't take long.

The new pump is smaller and has no filter (which I find a bit alarming) so the addition of the concrete bricks is no longer necessary.  We did have some trouble calibrating the recirculating pump's flow to prevent it from spitting up into the air, however.  Once it was running, the birds were back in no time.

The time spent on the back patio prompted me to finally take care of the damaged Yucca 'Blue Boy' I wrote about in a "Should it stay of should it go?" post two weeks ago.

Earlier photo of my largest Yucca 'Blue Boy' showing insect damage

Cutting the trunk level to the ground was easy once I found the right tool.  I moved the pot that had been situated between the Yucca and the patio to the other side of the bed at the same time. The pot had been getting too much water from a nearby sprinkler.

Interestingly, as can be seen here, the Yucca's trunk is already showing signs of having sprouted 3 offsets from its base

I moved the pot of succulents contained Aloe brevifolia to an area that gets little to no irrigation.

I still need to properly level the pot in its new spot and fill it out with one or more additional succulents

Two chores down but of course other dominoes fell in the process.  In addition to tweaking the placement and contents of the succulent pot shown above, I need to overall the bed adjacent to the patio.  The area surrounding the fountain also needs a refresh.  While it looks fine in early spring when the Narcissi, Freesia and Iris are blooming, it looks somewhat sad at other times of the year.  It looks sadder still after being trampled during our fountain repair effort.  Both areas are among the driest in my garden but succulents aren't the best choice, at least not around the fountain given that it requires cleaning at least twice a year as well as periodic repairs.  I need to give some thought to alternative planting schemes.

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party