Inspiration & Guides

Turquoise jar fountain with a sculpted front opening in a gravel garden at sunset

Urn Fountain Buying Guide: Choose the Right Size, Water Flow and Style

October 13, 2026JamesTheodore

Compare urn fountain sizes, water flow, materials and included equipment. Find a design that fits your patio, entryway or garden.

Close-up of a decorative mosaic-pattern bird bath basin

Stone and Rock Bird Baths: What to Check Before You Buy

August 29, 2026JamesTheodore

A stone-look bird bath may be carved natural stone, cast concrete or molded resin. Start with the listed material, then check the basin, dimensions and care requirements.A stone-look finish describes...

A house window from outside reflecting the garden and sky so clearly it reads as open space

Why Do Birds Attack Windows and Mirrors? Two Problems, One Piece of Glass

August 29, 2026JamesTheodore

There are two completely different things a bird can do to a window, and almost every page online treats them as one.One is a bird flying into the glass at...

A submersible pump on the floor of a three tier concrete fountain basin with its outlet tube running up

How to Install a Pump in a Tiered Fountain: Order of Operations

August 24, 2026JamesTheodore

Most fountain pumps are not hard to install. They are easy to install in an order that makes the first start fail, and the usual response is to conclude the...

A three tier concrete fountain running with the full rise from bottom basin to top outlet in frame

How to Size a Fountain Pump: GPH, Head Height and the Number That Misleads

August 23, 2026JamesTheodore

The number printed on a fountain pump box is measured with the outlet at the same height as the water. Your fountain is not built that way, and every inch...

An ornate pedestal bird bath in open lawn with a dense shrub border well back in the distance

Cats and Bird Baths: What the Numbers Say and What You Can Do

August 23, 2026JamesTheodore

A bird bath works by concentrating birds in one predictable spot, which from a cat point of view is a schedule. The national number, the two published placement distances and...

A garden hose filling a modern concrete bird bath with clear water arcing into the bowl

Tap, Softened, Rain or Well: Which Water Belongs in a Bird Bath

August 22, 2026JamesTheodore

Every guide says change the water. None of them say what to change it to. Softened water clears the only published avian sodium guideline in most homes that own a...

A scalloped concrete fountain tier with green algae film on the waterline and the wet stone above it

How to Keep Outdoor Fountain Water Clean When Birds Drink From It

August 22, 2026JamesTheodore

A fountain outdoors is a bird bath whether you meant it to be one or not. We checked what the bird safety claim on fountain algaecide actually rests on, what...

Three bird baths in rough concrete, green verdigris resin and antique bronze finish standing together on a lawn

Concrete, Plastic, Metal or Ceramic: Which Bird Bath Material Actually Works

August 21, 2026JamesTheodore

We sell concrete. The Cornell Lab says traditional concrete bird baths are not the best type for birds, and its own guide tells buyers to choose plastic instead. Here is...

A three tier concrete fountain with a low water level and a dry tide mark ring above it inside the basin

Why Your Outdoor Fountain Keeps Losing Water

August 21, 2026JamesTheodore

Water leaves a fountain by four routes and only one of them is a leak. Running the pump can nearly double how fast it goes, a bucket settles whether anything...

An ornate concrete fountain with its top tier removed and set on the ground, drained for winter

How to Winterize an Outdoor Concrete Fountain

August 20, 2026JamesTheodore

No agency and no university has ever published guidance on winterizing a cast concrete fountain. Every rule in circulation comes from a manufacturer, and the manufacturers contradict each other on...

A dry fluted concrete bird bath basin with a crack running across the floor and up the inner wall

How to Fix a Cracked Concrete Bird Bath

August 20, 2026JamesTheodore

The concrete side of this is a solved problem with federal manuals behind it, and almost every home repair guide gets the geometry backwards. The bird side, whether the patch...