Trickle Fountain on Bainbridge Island: Hollow Columns with Planted Capitals and Drip Irrigation

Trickle Fountain on Bainbridge Island: Hollow Columns with Planted Capitals and Drip Irrigation

Artists George Little and David Lewis perfected a trickle fountain flowing a drop at a time. One resides in a Bainbridge Island garden.

• Pond: poured steel-reinforced concrete. Three square pedestals support hollow concrete columns (formed in sections, assembled on-site).
• Capitals filled with soil, planted (each different), irrigated by pond water channeled through ½-inch copper tubes hidden in column centers—ultimate drip irrigation.
• Low-volume pump soaks soil, trickles over sides, drips from capital tops back to pond.

Capital Plants

• Tallest column: dwarf cattail (Typha minima) sending up straight green wands.
• Shortest: creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia) "dripping" lime green foliage.

Pond Rimmers

• Baby's tears (Soleirolia soleirolii) and creeping Jenny mingle at lower left beside agapanthus and Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon'.
• Lower right: Rehmannia elata (rose pink flowers), Bergenia 'Winter Glut' (oval leaves).
• Assorted primulas, lime-flowered lady's-mantle fill in.
• Rhododendrons and Douglas firs create leafy backdrop.

Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) in pond (underwater container on inverted container). Autumn: brought to greenhouse in bucket of water. Goldfish, koi, plants keep water clean—no filters. Overstory trees conceal pond from herons; too deep for raccoons.

Landscaping collaboration: homeowner, lead gardener Nathan Priddis, David Halsaver (Foxglove Greenhouses, Kingston, WA).