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Garden Feature
Suction Pump Installation
The Installation
Traveling on the continent about 16 years ago I purchased a Manual Suction Pump thinking it would be nice to install it in our garden as a working feature.
We had been home about a week when I was asked "when are you going to start fixing the pump" this prompted me to start searching building books etc, for plans advice or ideas on how to approach the installation, I drew a complete blank, absolutely nothing, I realized I was on my own. Clearly the first thing I had to do was to get a hole in the ground for the pipe?? "well" drilling machines were not for domestic in those days, my garden was not easily accessible and I bulked at the anticipated cost.
What to do then??? Start by DIGGING A HOLE
I dug a hole to stand in and using a sledge forced various lengths of timber down into the soil, twisting them with a 24" pipe wrench to create a turning effect like a drill. The photograph on the right shows the depth of the hole, but after all the work there was not suficent water for a working pump.
What to do now?? I wanted the pump working but I had not found water.
I enlarged the
hole and experimented with the installation of a 60 gallon tank and
"success it works".
Later I surrounded the tank with 3" of concrete leaving holes that allowed the surface water from the garden to filter into the tank. I covered it with 5/8" steel plate, this plate rested on top of the concrete and it took the weight of the blockwork and pump. Water not used is recycled back into the tank.
The pump as garden feature, enjoyed by the children, now in use for
over 15 years,