Making your own alpine sink worth over £100...

As I said in a previous post, I have had a couple of Belfast sinks by me for some time doing very little other than collecting water and providing a nice home for the odd frog on the allotments. After staring at them every time I visit the plots I thought it was about time to do something practical with them. So, with lots of oomphing and arghing I managed to load one into the car and take it back home. Having searched the internet for something useful to do with it I stumbled across the idea of covering it with hypertufa, creating a natural stone-like trough ideal and highly desired by alpine enthusiasts...

 

I found a recipe for the hypertufa mix which is as follows:

1 part cement

1 part moss peat

1 part sharp sand

To this you add just enough water so the mixture is moist and when squeezed, lets out a couple of drops of moisture. By no means should the mixture be sodden! Having made the mix I applied a pva adhesive all over the sink. Allow this to become tacky (which should occur just before it drys out. Then you start to apply the hypertufa mix, spreading it about 1" thick. Make sure you apply it all over the sides and to the lip of the sink as this will be visible even when planted.

I started on the front, applying the mix and pressing it to the adhesive on the sink. Keep adding more and working across the sink.

Even now I think it is starting to look stone-like.

Moving onto the side of the sink and things are going well. Note I have my overalls on as it gets to be a messy job! Also do wear gloves as the lime in the cement can be damaging to your hands.

I mixed the mix in a builders bucket and then tipped it onto the board in this picture. I found it easier to work from the board than from the confines of a bucket.

The mix takes about three days to cure or 'set'. Then its advisable to leave it another week before planting it to allow a second curing process to take place. During this time keep the sink covered over. I used some sheets of bubble wrap held down by an offcut of pond liner.
You may notice I haven't applied any mix to the back of the sink as it wont be seen. This sink will always be against a wall so I thought it completely unnecessary to 'jazz' the back up.
All in all the project cost me £7 exactly. The sink I've had for years and inherited them, the sand and cement I bought from Wickes for £7 and the peat I already had in the potting shed. Plus, all I used was two potting scoops of each ingredient!
I think I will do the same with the other Belfast sink and, you can also make rockery stones with the same mixture buy digging a hole in the garden, adding the mix to the hole and letting it set before removing. Hey presto! a homemade rockery stone. In theory I suppose you could also cover any other pot or bowl for that matter. I have some of those cheap plastic planters knocking about somewhere which I intend cover with this hypertufa and make some stone troughs and bowls. The possibilities are endless!
Look out for a future post when I've finished the project and its all planted and finished...
Please note. Some articles on the internet recommend you gentle brush over the mix once it has set with a wire brush to 'roughen' the edges and make it look more natural. I haven't found the need to do so. I think if you don't completely smooth it out when you first apply it to your pot/sink then it immediately starts to look like natural stone anyway!

A few jobs done and dusted...

Hi guys,

I've been busy this week in the garden, dodging the showers. As I write this the wind is blowing from the West and is bitter cold and the forecast is for snow either tonight or tomorrow.

In Monty's garden I've removed the glass coldframes which are now at the allotments. This has given me more space to play with which is never a bad thing! I've planted a Betula jacqumontii and helleborus Harvington Pewter there. WHen spring comes I can stock this bed further which is something to look forward to.

I

On a trip to Burford House gardens last week I picked up some bags of garden compost, ideal for mulching, for only £2.49 a bag! So I have been mulching the borders in the circle garden and Monty's garden. I always think a layer of mulch sets off the emerging shoots and gives an overall 'tidier appearance' at this time of year.

The pond needed a little tidy up so to that end I set out cutting back some of the flag iris and cyperus. I've taken out the waterfall and replaced it with the fountain function. Where the waterfall was is now dug over and another place ready to be planted up. I'm thinking candelabra primulas, ferns, astilbes and hostas.

The sarcococcas are looking good now. Below is S.hookeriana. Its the more upright of the sarcoccoca clan. It has lovely reddish stems and, as is common in all sarcoccoca, has wonderfully scented flowers.

A quick close up of the flowers below shows their beauty. I wish you could smell them from here...

 

By our back door we have S.confusa. This is a dwarfer species but will spread further than hookeriana. It spreads by underground runners but, in a container it controls its slightly 'adventurous' nature. Where this is positioned, it is in a shady position and because of this it flowers a little later.

As you can see below the flowers aren't yet open but, with the bush covered in buds, there will be a plethora of perfumed blooms in a week or two.

A project I've got lined up sometime in the next few weeks is a planted alpine sink. I've got a couple of Belfast sinks which I've had hanging about doing little or nothing. I've  been looking into creating a hypertufa mix and coated the sink in it as I find the glazed exterior a bit garish. It takes about a week to harden properly. Once i'm ready to start i'll line the base with broken crocks and shingle. Onto this i'll add a mixture made up of loam, leafmould and grit/sand. I intend to plant it up with some specialist species which will appreciate the sharp drainage so a trip to Ashwood nurseries will be called for...

 

 

A quick garden tour: The Circle Garden

 

Over the next few weeks I thought it would be a nice idea to introduce you to the different parts of the garden. The garden here at Duck Pools is made up of several very different areas, same may call them garden rooms.

This week i'm starting with what we call the circle garden. It is the midway point of the garden and features a large stone circle patio where one can stop and take a seat on the stone curved bench and watch the fish in the pond go about their business. The circular patio is surrounded by well-stocked borders and, obviously, the pond.

One enters the circle garden over a semi-circular cobble mosaic which features a stone ammonite and local stones encrusted with real fossils. A red gravel path then leads up past the pond on the right and the start of the main borders on the left.

Echinacea cultivar
 

 The stone bench offers a secluded place to stop and take the garden in. You can look back to the house overlooking the patio with all its pots and containers or you can look up to Monty's garden and surrounded flower borders.

The borders are filled with a mixture of plants. Herbaceous perennials, shrubs, bulbs and trees all play a part. There is a feature Acer campestre (Snake bark maple) with its bark marbled-white. Also, there is a large standard red robin which was full of bloom last year. After a few minutes sitting, you will see the resident blue tits and long tailed tits flitting to and fro.

Lush foliage flanks the path, offering interest before any flowers appear.

An aerial view of the circle garden. You can see the dividing trellis screen, clothed in Akebia quinata. On the right hand side is the golden pine. The pond iris foliage is just visible to the right.

I hope you've enjoyed all the circle garden has to offer. It does really feel like the heart of the garden; it feels like a destination to be reached. You stop, take a breather and continue to explore the garden...

 

21st January 2015...Early peas and new acquirements

Good evening! Fortunately we missed the snow here last night. We saw a few light flakes about 4pm but soon after it turned to rain and I think it rained all night judging by the garden this morning. Everywhere is damp, yet the skies are clearing and it could have the making of a good day...
I decided to sow some early peas in root trainers today to give us an early crop in May. The variety I chose was 'Douce Provence' a French-bred variety renowned for it's winter hardiness. I popped three seeds to each cell and covered them over with a layer of grit to discourage any four-legged fiends getting at them.
I now make my own potting mixes in attempt to keep them as organic as possible. There are about four different mixes I make for things like seed sowing, pricking out and potting on, planting bulbs, tubers and corms and also for striking cuttings. My seed sowing mix is as follows:

3 parts peat

 (I now have a supply of coir which I am slowly introducing to cut my peat usage)

2 parts loam

(I use sieved molehills. An excellent source of quality loam which, if collected locally to you, should contain a similar make-up of microbes and good bacterium to that of your own soil into which you will plant)

1 part perlite/sharp sand

 (I prefer the former as it keeps the mix nice and light)

1 part garden compost/vermicompost

 

There are great benefits to making your own compost mixes which anyone can do with the minimal effort required. First and foremost it works out much cheaper than popular brands of compost you buy at the garden centres. From buying a bag of each of the above I can make perhaps 9 to 10 times the quantity you buy in commercial bags, therefore making it economically sound.

Secondly, you know what's in it. Many commercial brands which we have all come to rely on somewhat have been adding cheap bulking materials to their mixes to cut production costs.

Last but not least, unless you can absolutely trust your local nursery or garden centre it is hard to know quite how old that bag of compost actually is. If it's old stock that has sat on the premises for a year or two; it is highly likely that most of the goodness would have leached from the bag. Water may have seeped into the bag making it, at times, saturated which could trigger anaerobic activity in the mix, rendering that compost useless for our use.

If anyone is interested in my other mixes just email me and I will send you the ingredients and their ratios...

 

Back to the garden. Despite the recent harsh weather, the snowdrops in Monty's garden are looking splendid. It will be their second year after I planted them 'in the green' (the best way to quickly establish a colony as bulbs often dry out before planting and can be hard to get going). There is one particular clump flowering their socks off at the foot of our immature golden willow. The unadulterated cleanliness of the snowdrops against the harsh lineal form of the salix really do compliment each other very well.

 

On the topic of bulbs, back in autumn I planted a number of dwarf bulbs in pots which I sank into the borders. Having planted thousands of bulbs in the past and then inadvertently digging them up when working in the garden and their labels have either faded or been commandeered by an over inquisitive dog; I came to the conclusion it would be much easier to plant into pots and sink them into the ground where I wanted them to flower. As and when they look past they can be lifted, pot and all, and put away to die sown naturally, free from hindrance and a wandering spade.

Amongst the bulbs were beauties such as Tulipa 'Red riding hood'and 'Wisley'; Hyacinths and many different cultivars and species crocus. I'm hoping it will be a sight to behold come springtime.

Over the past week I have made numerous shrubby purchases including the elegant winter-flowering Viburnum bodnantense 'Dawn' with its delightfully scented pink flowers on bare stems; Sambucus nigra 'Black beauty' made popular by its intricately shaped foliage as rich and dark as damson jam and topped by pink/white flowers adored by bees and butterflies. I also indulged myself on a guilty pleasure ladies and gentlemen... I have a soft spot for Betula jacquemontii, or Himalayan white birch to use its vernacular name. It's an interesting little tree well-suited to the smaller garden with an eventual height and spread of 16ftx10ft. Forming a loose canopy it wont form a dense mat of shade beneath nor will it insist on thrusting its roots further and further in pursuit of moisture and nourishment. As a young tree its bark is a rather mundane corduroy brown but, as with all good things, patience is the key. As the tree reaches adolescence, it sheds its this layer of bark to reveal it's true colours. Suddenly, what you considered to be just another tree, becomes the talking point of your garden. And, I challenge you not to go and visit that tree every day. If that was not reason enough to have one in your garden, it seeks to further impress with its pale yellow autumnal colours and its small brown tassel-like catkins in spring. I haven't yet reached the point of jet washing the trunk or taking a scrubbing brush to it to exemplify its ghostly charm but there are those that have. There is a wonderful glade of white birches at Anglesey Abbey gardens which is just as beautiful as a border packed with flowers. It has an eerie charm about it and one almost imagines it as somewhere fairies and nymphs prance about under the cover of darkness.

The trick with this particular Betula is to make it a dominant feature within the garden. Plant it at the end of a pathway so it draws you down the garden or underplant it with plants of contrasting colour such as a carpet of Ophiopogon nigrens; a tactful little grass with jet black foliage, small purple flowers which are followed by black berries and it's ability to slowly bush out by slowly running underground. Ours will take the place of an old coldframe where it will catch the late afternoon sun.

 Finally, I popped down the allotments this afternoon for a few hours. Whilst I was there I managed to finish woven hazel edging on one of the large beds.

 I also planted a row of Jerusalem artichokes, positioning them where they will receive full sun for most of the day. The require this amount of sun as they are actually a relative of the sunflower. I had a few tubers from a friend so what was left after planting I took home and made roasted artichoke chips.

Also picked some monster parsnips and the last of the baby leeks for dinner tomorrow...

 

A new beginning...

Welcome Ladybugs and gentle bees to our new blog Duck Pools, charting the everyday running of the garden.

We always class  our garden as ..."a garden divided."

purely because all things fancy and floral belong at home and all things fruity, frugal and flavoursome are grown in just under 1/4 acre of allotments.

A little bit about me: I'm Black Country born and bred 1990. I started my career as a nursery worker before starting my own garden maintenance business which I currently run. Gardening has always been in my life despite my parents 'fear' of anything green and leafy. I had my first allotment when I was 12 before becoming letting officer of the four sites in our area. Since then I have given up such position and now reside as Vice Chairman and vegetable judge of Wollaston Gardeners Guild and secretary to West Mids D.A of the National vegetable society (NVS) for whom I also write gardening articles.

Creating the garden has been a long term project, amendments have been made as and when funds would allow. Plants have been bought in as young plants and have been allowed to grow at their own pace. Organic I am not, however I fully understand the reasons why some do sway that way and, I have tried it myself, rather by accident the garden has little more than a dose of fish blood and bone and good old-fashioned FYM each year. ( I have since changed to a more organic approach...)
As this is the first post I'll insert some photographs of the garden below to get your horticultural taste buds tingling! I'm treating this year as a trial run for next year when we open for charity as part of the Wollaston Gardeners Guild Open Gardens...
The garden is by no means huge. In fact it is roughly 50ft x 30ft. Into I have managed to create several garden rooms consisting of the circle garden with pool and Monty's garden. As well as a small area outside the back door exclusively planted for scent and, in particular, evening interest. At the heart of the garden sits a 12x8 greenhouse which, in spring, becomes a plant factory pumping out hundreds of seedlings destined for garden and plot. Over time I shall introduce you all to the various components which make up this garden.
Please enjoy the following photos and keep checking in and please do leave comments as feedback is richly received. Thanks -Adam..