11 replies to this topic

[Pat]

Our well head is located in the front yard, about a foot from the driveway. It occasionally gets hIt during snow removal. It is also about 5 from the front steps and about 5 feet from a deck. The yard gets lots of shade. The soil is sandy and dry. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

[Deb Hall]

Hi Pat and welcome to the GarenAtoZ website. Is it possible to take a picture and send it which would put everything enabling us to help create a simple design or diversion for your well head. Well heads are a necessary part of many yards so let's put our minds together and find a plan to make it fit in. Looking forward to helping solve your problem. Deb Hall

[Corky]

I looked and looked and there's only one photo I can find that shows what we did. My husband used wooden panels to build a six (?) sided casing around the well head and then we added a bird bath basin to the top. Presto! A bird bath! Then I (finally!) got him to put a dripper in and the birds love it!

Help... URL? You mean I have to upload the image to Flipper... or Flicker or Whatever before I can get it here? But Flickr is refusing to admit I exist!! Okay, this will take a day or two because it snowed all day and there's a foot of powder out there . . . so, tomorrow, late, okay?

[Corky]

Okay, let's try this again . . . WooHoo! That looks pretty good if it's what's above! You can see the wooded base, tho we have a larger top now (this was taken in 2006) and the dripper is a more recent addition as well. Hope it really shows up or I will have to retire from the Forum in shame!

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[MG gal]

We made a hollow cement sphere to cover our well head.

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[Jim]

You can buy a crock chimney liner, paint it, place over the well head and place a container of flowers on top of the liner.

[Karen Skandalaris]

I made a rock from chicken wire and concrete.  I used concrete stain in various colors to make it look realistic.  You can get a plastic fake rock but they don't look that much like a rock.

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[Janet Macunovich]

That's a great fake rock. Kudos!

And this is a great set of ideas for people facing the wellhead challenge.

We've put beds around wellheads before and can only say for others doing it, be careful to keep the bed from centering on the point where the wellhead is. Make the wellhead occupy a space over on one end of an irregular bed, or near-but-not-right-in the corner of a rectilinear bed. Otherwise whatever you put there will really have to work well or it'll become a "What is that, and what is it about it that seems off -- that thing everything in this bed points to?"

We've made a few rocks (we've used hypertufa trying to keep 'em lighter) but think it takes a real feel for rocks. Even after qite a few tries, only probably 2 of 3 really came off looking good. The colorant's particularly hard to guage, I think.

But fun to do.

Steve do we have a photo of the rock we made as a base for the oriental garden gong? The one we made with Matt-the-law-student-oh-why-don't-you-follow-that-artsy-gift-you-have?

[Janet Macunovich]

Hmph! Turns out Steven never considered our fake rocks to be stars; only photo'd them in passing!

[Corky]

Since there's not much else I can do, post rotator cuff surgery, I took photographs of my peonies and roses on a particlarly beautiful day this week. I also got an updated photo of the camouphlaged well head, dripper and all. Unfortunately, I missed the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak who had chased mother Robin away from her bath to enjoy a drink.

ETA: Also unfortunately, my photographs are huge and/or my uploading skills are gone in a fog of anaesthesia, so it's back to the drawing board for photo uploading!

[tasso]

We built a "wishing well" over ours and it works just fine to hide the ugliness.  Eventually we'll establish low-lying perennials around it - perhaps bearberry.

[terrird]

I think my post did not post so: Ours is thoughtfully located next to the front door and in front of the living room picture window. We covered it inexpensively with a 12" by 3 foot terra cotta pipe and a 15" terra cotta pot saucer with a concrete frog and 2 Petosky stones inside. We fill it with water and our birds use it as a drinking source by standing on the rocks or they take a refreshing bath in hot weather.