DIY Bird Bath

I often notice Bushtits and other birds eating insects off my plants. I've been wanting a bird bath for a long time to encourage them even more, especially during late Spring and Summer, when the pests are at their worst, and the birds need supplemental water the most.
But I always balk at the price of the bird baths I really like. I finally got it together, and made one out of things I already had!

I came across this lovely glass serving plate I got as a present, and always liked but rarely use. I realized it reminded me of a flower, and I started wondering if I could somehow re-purpose it as garden art. Re-purpose-ing an object you don't use, and therefore don't really enjoy, seems like such an ultimately healthy, responsible and fun thing to do. You give the object a new opportunity to please you every day, instead of letting the poor little thing sit unused and forgotten on your highest shelf year after year!

We found this old metal table leg years and years ago -- one of those things you stash away saying, "I'll use this for something..."  It could have been repainted, but I decided it looked pretty cool "distressed" and why go out and buy paint, which is not so pro-enviro, when the whole point is to have no footprint with this kind of project!

The leg is hollow, so all I did was take an old broom stick and pound it into the ground about three feet. It had just rained, so this was fairly easy. Then I shoved my metal leg down onto the broom stick, took my handy dandy tube of "Amazing Goop" and spread some goop around the top of the metal leg, and gently slapped that purple plate on it's new base! I plan to plant some trailing rosemary around the new Bird Bath, at my 8-year old's request. He likes rosemary!

You can adapt this to yourself fairly easily. Look around for a shallow bowl or concave plate, and then scan the garage (or hardware store) for potential stands. You could use one thick wooden dowel. Paint or stain if you like. Pound one end into the ground, apply glue to the other end, and affix your plate or shallow bowl to the top. Please let me know what you come up with!

I've always heard that birds want their bath water shallow, so a shallow plate should be perfect. I'm proud of myself for finding a use for all these things I had lying around. I'm proud of myself for getting a bird bath I truly like for free. And I love the feeling of being in this sustainable-recycling-creative mode. I'll update when I see whether or not the birds are as impressed with me as I am!