So Dear to my heart are the dreams of my childhood, when fond recollection brings them to view, The old oaken bucket, the iron bound bucket, the old oaken bucket that hangs in the well!
[Taken from Best Loves Poems of American Poets–from memory]
Start with your favorite site for your garden improvement and your place to relax and enjoy all you have accomplished!
There is something about a wishing well in your favorite spot or just in the yard of your home, how to get yours?
Buy one at a yard sale!
Buy a kit and build one?
Buy one ready to place and enjoy!
Get some plans and build your own!
Building your own is awesome, troublesome, and enjoyable all at the same time.
Material selection! Wood, masonry, metal???
Style: Traditional, Modern? something in between?
A lot of choices and decisions before we actually start construction.
Anybody ready to proceed a new project?
I recommend that you select a proven design from your local supply store or if clever make your own design, just so there is a plan of action with sketches to keep us focused. My favorite is the old traditional that uses all wood and matched short 2×4 cutoffs to resemble brick when finished. The length of the 2x4s is chosen to make the round well the size selected. The 2x4s are actually nailed to each other with a single nail in the end center of the 2×4 so the ‘joint’ acts like a hinge; each 2×4 ‘brick’ is centered over the end joints of the layer below, just like laying brick; result is striking.
Choose treated wood or better Cedar usually available from lumber yards and Big Store builders supply stores. Cedar is easy to work with, smells great, and lasts 50 years or more depending how much moisture is experienced. Our small Wishing Well is of the type talked about above. It actually sits over our water well valves (used for lawn sprinkling) The wood is standard pine, there has been a lot of water leakage at the well head valves so the wood ‘bricks’ are finally breaking down and rotting. This Wishing Well is easily 25 years old! We plan to surround the wood ‘bricks’ with 1×6 cedar fence slats that we will cut dog ears at the top–angle cuts to create a look of tapered or angle cut corners at the top of the slat. We will make every other slat lower by about 3″ from its neighbor so that we can have a short slat in front of the hose connection which is higher than the existing top of well and the taller adjacent slats will hide the view of the valve except when directly in line with it–ambiance.