Dear Sibe,

I want to put a water feature into my garden. However I have three limiting factors that mean I cannot find a suitable one.

Firstly, I need a water feature that does not require me to dig a hole, as the part of the garden I wish to locate it in is concrete, and the sewers from the house run just under the surface.

Secondly, it must be suitable for very young children, so must not have any large amounts of standing water.

Thirdly, I would like one that is self-contained as a single unit as children have a habit of trying to dismantle things.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Our Gardening Expert replies:

Hi,

I'm a little worried that your sewers appear to be just below the surface - there's usually a minimum depth specified by Local Authority Regulations - maybe you should check this.

Moving on to the water feature. These usually work on the principle that water is recycled from a sump below the feature by a pump to emerge at the top and then cascade down over the feature itself. The sump itself is usually below ground level to maintain the illusion that the water is seeping away naturally. You will lose this illusion if your entire feature is above ground level, but it should still be possible to construct something reasonable.

If, for example, you obtain a waterproof half-barrel, and fit a sturdy open metal grid over this, fixed securely to the barrel itself, you could then place the sump inside the barrel or, in fact, use it as the sump itself.

If you can't find anything that would fit you may need to construct a feature of your own, and this is not too difficult.