garden centres sell them and you can get them on line. I had 2 neither lasted very long at all. But that was about 4 years ago so perhaps they have improved?

Try Bradshaws Direct. They are a long established pond supplies company and they stock various types of solar water feature.

Thanks, I`ll try Bradshaws and see what they have. I work in a garden centre that is part of a chain but we are a small centre and don`t sell them. :o(

Sandra x

I'm wondering if you were successful in finding a solar water feature, Sandra....and how good/reliable it was? I am considering getting one in the spring when our garden is sorted out but I know very little about them.

I am wondering if electric would be better? The men doing our landscaping said one disadvantage of a solar system is you can't turn them off and of course with electric you have that option. Any suggestions or info would be helpful, Sandra. Ta.

Hi WL, I was looking at them last week, some now come with rechargable batteries for when there is no sun and some it seemed you could control on and off?

That's encouraging, Drc....was this online or at a GC? I've got the winter to do some mooching around to get an idea of their practicality.

I saw some at my garden centre but there are lots on line too.

From what I saw WL electric gave a better choice and must be more reliable also it would work when no sun at all

Yes, that's true....will have to do some research....just thinking about the cost of installing electric when doing the landscaping....it all adds up so quickly! :(

It does but you could justify the expense of a cable by adding some outside lighting at the same time?
When I asked about pond pumps a couple of members suggested the cable can go around the garden and not under it, fixed to the fence and plugged into perhaps the garage, have you considered that WL?

That might work...I'd need to take advice from an electrician. Thinking about it we will need access to electricity for our flymo when we have grass. Maybe get some quotes and go from there. Thanks for the suggestions, Drc.

My pleasure hope you can do it the cost would be so much better.

wow, I could do with the rechargeable battery option, as I only get a ocuple of hours' sun a day if I'm lucky. I hadn't known that option existed; thanks for mentioning it, now I'm off on a hunt!

Hope you find it works for you Fran

lol Droc, just done a Google - even with "water feature with rechargeable batteries" and "don't find solar or lighting" selected in the filter, I got offered stacks of solar water features water and lighting, and mains ones. the only ones with rechargeable batteries were lights.

Amazon said it had one, but when I went there, I found that their idea of "water feature with rechargeable batteries" is an epilator (posh name for female razor)!

sigh

lol

I think we will have to wait awhile until the budget allows for an electrical hook-up as solar seems a no-starter! At the moment we are paying out a fair amount for the garden landscaping and I still will need more plants! Thanks for the helpful pointers.

well, if you're going to be landscaping, maybe you can arrange for underground cables to be put in - ready to be connected when you reach that stage of your budget? Will be easier to get the cables safely installed beforehand, rather than dig it up afterwards. - just so long as you work out where you'll want the power outlets to be

good luck, and let us know how you get on!

Fran, it would have been a good idea to get the electrics sorted out previously but unfortunately the new patio has been laid. I think when the decision is made to add electric we will have to run it along the bottom of the house and then run it along the fencing in the flower borders once they are established.

I'll keep you posted on progress. Full steam ahead tomorrow :)

Maybe the cables can be run around the patio but then incorporated nto the bds as you go along? but then, once they're in, they're set - cable around the edges can be relocated without excavation at a later date.

Keep my fingers crossed for you - so far it looks like our third sunny Bank Holiday Monday in a row - round here, anyway!

Well Fran....no sun here...it has stopped raining at last but very dull & grey. The forecast is for mixed showers and sun for tomorrow and improving the rest of the week in our neck of the woods. That will be welcome :)

I think it will be cable around the edges as you suggest, Fran...but for a later time.

Our local Focus is closing down so we went there today to see if there were any bargains to be had for our garden project....plants were only reduced by a fraction and would need some TLC in most cases so didn't get any of those. I've put my sister-in-law on red alert as she works there....we saw wheelbarrows there so she is going to watch for those to get reduced and will let me know :)

So we've come home and just moved all the pots and garden seating into a couple of areas of the patio where we hope they won't be in the way of the gardener and her team tomorrow.

Enjoy your sunshine, Fran :)

lol I'll try to send some your way. though, having said that, it looks like it might be on the way to you already, started clouding a bit here.

Mostly, there's a good reason why plants are discounted! I tend to get most of mine from Lidl, they're usually in-and-out, not much time to get weary (though of course one doesn't know how long they've been travelling to get to the shop) - besides, it's the only one I know round here that I can get to by public transport, as it's on a main road.

The main thing, for me, is to try to work out what I want to do - eventually - and try to see how much of that, or bits of it, can be incorporated into "what comes next". So many times I've donen something, then had to undo half of it because I didn't think about adding something that I could have used later - or find a way to work round it, which always seems to take more time and effort, and never quite manages to be as effective, so I end up taking things apart and putting them back together again - and again!

ps it's raining here now, how you've got the sun!

Fran, it's been a funny day here weatherwise. First thing we had rain and hail showers and by late morning the sun was out and remained out all afternoon...great weather for the garden team who worked very hard and accomplished quite a lot (see my latest blog).

I will be looking at different shops/nurseries/online for the plants I would like but it will be an ongoing project. I do have to watch the budget. Lidl and Aldi are very good for plant bargains. I'm willing to nurse sickly plants along as 'practice specimens' and if I am not successful I won't have spent a huge amount of my budget...and of course I have been given some cuttings and plants from some GoY friends which is a welcome addition to my collection.

Like you, there will be some mistakes in choosing plants and where to locate them but that's all in the fun of the learning and enjoying :)

grins, ain't it just? I usually allow for 50% failure in seeds ad baby plants - sometimes it means I get over-run with them and have to find new homes in rather a hurry. Other times I'm lucky if it's on ly 50% losses. but, so long as they're cheap enough, it's no big deal; one learns by one's mistakes (ha, i should be an expert in that acse!!).

Sometimes I won't give up even when the plant is obviously going down for the third time; I keep thinking that there should have been something that I could have done. ah well, knowing when to cut one's losses is another learning curve.

Supermarkets are cheap, but then, they don't have the range carried by garden centres. Any chance of swopping cutings with neighbours or locals? delayed swap, that is - each giving when it's time to take cuttings for whatever plant. *g* maybe we could organise into regions and start up (fairly) local swap shops!

I may look into trades eventually....early days yet though. Gonna be fun whatever way I get my borders filled :)

That's the spirit....keep planting those seeds! lol

lol I've had some of these seeds for years, no idea if they're still viable - they're still foil-sealed - but there's only one way to find out.

I collect all fruit seeds and pips - *s* I bought some grapes once, principally for the seeds; when I got them home I realised they were seedless. ah well, they were nice to eat. I've got lots of apple, cherry, date, clementine pips; doubt they'll take but again ...

Have fun experimenting with your seeds, Fran. When my children were young we were always planting orange pips. They grew into small plants too but no fruit :(

still beats me! did get some tiny apple seedlings, but they all fell over aftter a while, sigh