The water feature is completed and settled into its new home. Have a look:
After much to-ing and fro-ing over the details, multiple trips to craft stores and thrift shops looking for the ideal water vessel, I returned to Hughes Water Garden and got a bamboo Deer Chaser.
Deer Chasers, known as Shishi Odoshi, are water features often found in traditional Japanese gardens. As the water empties from the lower spout, the bamboo strikes the base of the bamboo frame making a very tranquil, pleasant sound. The noise was originally intended to scare deer away from snacking on garden plants. The one I purchased is a modified design of the more traditional ones I’ve seen in Japan.
There’s really not a lot to do to construct a Deer Chaser water feature; it’s more about assembly.
Before you start, get a hold of these items:
- Waterproof pot (ideally with a hole in the bottom)
- Deer Chaser kit, including a pump
- Plastic perforated basket – to corral objects you want to submerse in the water
- Plastic pot – to raise the level of the plastic basket, if needed
- Waterproof epoxy – to seal the hole(s) in the bottom of the pot
- Decorative rocks (I used colorful Montana River Cobblers)
- Plants (I used a native rush which I found growing in our wetland area)
1. Place the pot close to or at its final location.
2. Drill a hole in the bottom or side of the pot, if there isn’t one already.
3. Attach the tube coming out of the deer chaser to the pump and run the pump cable out through the hole in the pot to your outside power source. Do not plug in, yet.
4. Seal the hole around the cable until there is a watertight seal. You may want to let the epoxy dry and fill the pot with water to check out the seal.
4. Insert the plastic pot and/or basket into the pot, hiding the tubing and pump as best you can. The pump should be totally submersed.
5. Arrange the rocks and plants in the basket to your liking.
6. Fill the pot with water.
7. Plug the pump into your electric source.
8. Adjust the rocks and plants as necessary to accommodate water flow from the spout.
Stand back and enjoy!
