Adding a bird bath to a border is a huge trend this year, and no wonder. Pair the beauty of blooms with the joy of splashing birds and you have the very best pool party any garden could wish for! What’s more, this is a quick and easy DIY garden project for a summer evening or weekend, and making a bird bath yourself means it can be achieved on a budget, so as border ideas go, it's a winner.

As a gardening editor, I’m lucky enough to visit lots of gardens and flower shows and I’ve seen an incredible increase in container ponds of all sorts this year, from make-it-yourself microponds to wonderfully innovative DIY water features using cheap floating solar fountains. But the idea I’ve loved most of all is in-border bird baths. Siting a bird bath in a border is a beautiful way to quickly turn a bed from lackluster to lovely, but this project isn't only for your benefit, as many bird species are seed eaters. You're probably already growing flowering plants with seeds that birds love to eat so adding a border bird bath will pair water with food.

I’ve been snapping photos of examples I’ve spotted so I can create a bird bath in my own garden, where charms of goldfinches regularly descend to feast on scabious seedheads. From pretty kitchen basins raised up on reclaimed brick pillars to gravel-lined pools sunk into the soil, I’ve gathered a ton of inspiration. And, as there’s no telling how long this summer’s heatwave is going to last for, I figured your garden friends as well as mine might appreciate their very own bespoke backyard spa.

Which is the best bird bath design for you will depend not just on your garden style but how frequently cats and other predators use your backyard. The higher the threat, the higher you need to raise the birdbath from the ground, and the clearer the airspace around it should be. Do consider the other wildlife in your garden, too, as a few well-placed rocks can open water access to all sorts of pollinators and other beneficial insects. Here are the 10 best ideas I saw to DIY a border bird bath.

1. Upcycle a Garbage Can Lid

We all have an old metal trash can sitting at the back of the garage, right? Use its lid, upside down in a border, to create a bird bath as has been done here, with a line of pebbles to give insects that fall in safe passage out of the water. I'm loving these wooden-peg plant labels, too!

If you’re one of the very few homeowners without a tired trash can stashed years ago, then why not drill some holes in the base of this well-priced galvanised steel Garden Garbage Can from Ace Hardware? That'll transform the body into a sleek modern planter and hey presto, you have yourself a spare lid to make a bird bath.

2. Make a Water Bowl Safe With Pebbles

If you already have a water bowl or feature in your garden, you can make it a safe depth for birds to use by adding pebbles or gravel. The maximum safe depth for any birdbath is four inches, though varying depths, particularly shallower areas around the rim, mean small birds such as goldfinches and sparrows can use it as well.

This idea can work for water features of any scale, from bijou bowls to expansive pools like this showstopper – imagine that full of a boisterous group of splashing starlings!

3. Repurpose a Reclaimed Item

Pebbles also allow you to adjust the depth of reclaimed items to make them safe to use as bird baths, and using aged materials is a stylish match for more relaxed, cottage-garden-style yards. This old metal trough uses larger pebbles in the base bath but a finer gravel in the upper pool to make it suitable for insects as well as smaller birds.

Do you have an old item that could be repurposed? If not, find your nearest reclamation yard through the Salvo architectural salvage directory and go hunt for one. Small holes or areas of damage are easily made watertight with a marine sealant such as this from Amazon.

4. Raise a Kitchen Basin on Bricks or Blocks

I’ll wager you’ve got a heap of pretty bowls you hardly ever use sitting in a kitchen cupboard – so why not use one to create a unique border birdbath? This shallow ceramic bowl that’s been raised on a stack of alternating pairs of bricks would be perfect for a cottage garden. For a sleeker vibe in a more modern garden, how about a marble bowl on a stone plinth?

As quick and clever DIY ideas for containers go, this DIY bird bath rewards minimal effort with maximum style.

5. Use Bricks to Sink a Spiral Bird Bath Into a Border

This has to be my favorite idea of all. Though the result is super-stylish, this spiral gravel bird bath is simple to replicate using a section of pond liner, bricks or block pavers, and pea gravel. Simply dig a sloping-edge hole and line with the aquaculture material, being sure to spread it well beyond the pool rim, then landscape with blocks and gravel. For longevity, it would be a smart move to lay a couple of inches of sand, such as this All-Purpose Sand from Home Depot, between the soil and the liner, too.

I love how this pool has been integrated into the border with a line of angled bricks leading into the planting. The sloping gravel means it’s safe for insects as well as birds to use.

6. Make a Naturalistic Gravel Scrape Pool

This wildlife pool sits in a gravel border of Carex grass and hart’s tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium), with rounded pebbles creating a naturalistic look as well as giving safe bathing for all sizes of birds. To stop mosquitoes from breeding, a small fountain has been used to keep the water moving, and it’s easy to do the same using a floating solar-powered fountain.

You can make a gravel scrape pool for your garden birds in the same way as the spiral birdbath above, by digging a depression and lining it with sand and pool liner material. Take a tip from this lovely example, though, and extend the pool further than you plan the surface area of the water to be. Filling in part of the shallow pool completely with pebbles allows you to add aquatic plants such as this pretty corkscrew rush (Juncus effusus ‘Spiralis’) (bottom right of this image) as part of your border.

7. Sink a Shallow Container

For a quicker DIY sunken bird bath, you can dig out a depression in a border and use a shallow container to hold the water, rather than a pond liner. Any vessel can be used as long as it’s watertight and winter-proof, as you can make the water depth shallower and create sloping sides using gravel or pebbles. Here, rocks in the center and cut logs around the perimeter have been added to create landing perches for flying insects as well as birds.

The wider the container, the better. Not only will it need topping up less often but there will be room to add a floating solar fountain to keep the water moving, making it unsuitable for mosquitoes to breed. A layer of sand such as this All-Purpose Sand from Home Depot between the container and soil will make it easier to do final fine-tuning with a spirit level as well as improve longevity.

8. Upturn a Plant Stand to Hold a Pot Saucer

This genius idea uses a trio of ceramic plant saucers in an upturned plant stand. The top pool is a birdbath while the lower two are half-filled with gravel as well as water to provide drinking spots for bees, butterflies and ground beetles. Just don't use unsealed terracotta plant saucers as the clay is porous.

9. Create a Mud-Pillar Bird Bath

Here’s an interesting idea to try if you live in a dry zone with clay-rich soil – a pillar bird bath created from a mix of earth and chopped up straw. It takes inspiration from the traditional house-building material of ‘daub’, a mix of an aggregate such as sand or soil, a binder such as clay, and reinforcement like straw, hay or animal hair. As long as the daub gets a full week of dry weather to cure, it’s surprisingly resilient in occasional rain, though is unlikely to last more than a summer without a coat of limewash.

Fashion some sort of a mold using a container or plywood boards. Mix clay-rich soil with any fully dried, chopped-up plant stems (crush first if they're hollow) and just enough water to combine, and pack the mixture into the mold. Such a fun garden project, especially if you have children!

10. Relocate a Pedestal Bird Bath

Of course, the easiest way to create your very own in-border avian plash-park is to simply move an existing pedestal bird bath into a flower bed. This bath is especially attractive to feathered friends as it’s tall enough for the water to sit just above the flowers, and a flat rock has been placed in the centre to make an easy landing pad.

There are plenty of other wins in this quick garden project for you as well as the birds. Whether or not yours is a wildlife garden, attracting birds to your plot with a border bird bath is a smart choice because, as well as snacking on flower seedheads, many bird species readily feast on slugs and snails. Add pebbles so insects can drink safely from your bird bath and you'll also welcome an army of smaller pest-control experts. Add some stylish homes for your garden wildlife to shelter all these critters, and your yard will be a haven for beneficial backyard critters that help to keep pests at bay.