Has anyone else used this ? I had never heard of it until I found the "recipe" in a book... 1 part sand 1 part cement and 2 parts peat(peat substitute) mixed together. I bought an old enammel sink and coated it in the mixture, it now looks very old, weathered an authentic...the genuine troughs are so expensive and look no different to my one made on the cheep. I have esed mine as a water feature by purhasing a wall plaque, drilling a hole where the mouth should be and threading a clear pipe through attached to a small pump. looks very nice nesled in amongst some Ivy and Honeysuckle. If you only have space for a small water feature this is ideal, I have tabpoles and watersnails living in mine and birds regularly come to drink. this mixture can also be used to make alpine sinks, put a smaller cardboard box inside a larger one and fill the gap with the Hypertuffa mix..when dry(about 3 days) remove the outer box and the inner box and you have an aged looking alpine trough
I have had a recipe similar to this but with the addition of cow manure [I suppose to help the aged effect] for ages but never got round to trying it! I'm inspired now you've said it works, as you say the stone sinks are very expensive.
If you are coating a sink, paint the sink with a PVA adhesive first, and you could add some to the mixture to make it stick!. For outdoor purposes the mixture may be varied by adding less peat(whatever) to make a stronger substance. You can also add cement colouring to get different coloured results. The colour of the sand also affects the colour of the finished product. You also do not need a sink as a base. If you are at all handy you can make mould and cast your own sinks. We have 18 such creations in our gravel garden. They were formed round those large black trays which nurseries use for carrying plants around. And if you want to go really mad, this is a Crevice garden made from hypertufa slabs If you need any more information, give me a shout. Final thing A WARNING. I was making one of these troughs and discovered to my horror and pain that for some reason the stuff had removed the skin from my finger tips and very deeply too. WEAR GLOVES!
Palustris, lovely photos again! I suppose it wouldn't be hard to make plywood moulds if necessary? I remember playing with cement when i was small and ending up with very sore hands. Now all I need to do is finish planting my new border, install the brick edging, sort out my pond and the water feature and I can start on making a trough.... oh yes and I've still got to try making my granite thing deeper... I don't know how you manage all your garden!
