Need ideas to make this a feature

Hi, I recently acquired this stone trough thing, it makes a perfect mini pond I think. I have painted it roughly in white and put slate in the bottom. The water though has turned murky very quickly and the whole thing looks odd just standing there on it's own, so looking for any ideas I can mull over.
What would you do to make this a real feature that would make anyone say wow seeing it for the first time? :confused:

 

It's crying out for plants!!! You could grow stuff in pots if you don't want to dig up the flags...I just grow what I like and try anything!! :rolleyes: :D Which as you can see from some of my posts isn't always successful :rolleyes: but it's knowledge in the bank :D

 

id stick a load of herbs in it nice smells and you could use them for cooking

 

Sorry but as you say it looks like what it is, a sink.

You have a few choices.

Fill it with soil and grow herbs in it (leave the plug hole open)

Leave it as it is and put some pots around it with tall growing plants

Seal the plug in the hole, fill full of water add some plants

Or if you really have the time / inclination add a tap to it and a pump and make a water feature out of it.

 

These troughs are popular over here to make mini gardens in using various types of sedum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedum

A nice rock or knarled piece of wood amongst the plants finishes it off nicely.

The above tips are all very good, hard to decide which one to try.

 

Hi thanks for all your replies -- , it isnt a belfast sink, its heavy stone - tbh don't know what it's original function was, maybe some sort of water trough for farm animals i'm thinking, and was a terrecotta colour. hink it wasnt made as decoration but for a function.
haha windy miller, it's the trying that counts i say! I'm sure i'm going to have tons of disasters this year. Cant dig up the flags as that is the patio part of my garden but thinking now plants round it would work.
i'm liking the herb idea, but it's become a watering hole so want to keep as water - (might try and get another one though for herbs!)
Tap idea is out of the question as location is unsuitable, but thanks anyway.
Water plant, liking the sound of that wise old owl -
thanks for the link kedi. (and nice looking cat)

I'll update with a picture when I've made it stunning thanks for the ideas - it helps as i am clueless.

 

Hello mgn,

What the heck, make it a wildlife pond! Last months Gardeners World had a great feature on container ponds. If it is a small sink probably only 2 or 3 plants are needed to attract dragon/damselflies, bees, newts or frogs if you are lucky but you will need to use stone or bricks to make sure creatures can get out as well as in! I've tried to find the article online but can't.. If you are interested I will send you the names of the 2 plants they recommend.

 

hi tiggs and oscar, good point about making sure creatures can get out - i have been saving flys from drowning in it all day (i'm a bit of a daft softy). Funny you should mention about newts as one was in the garden the other week,and i'd never seen one before, so they must be already living somewhere near but thing is my cats like to torment these things (newt got its tail bitten off but i hear they grow back)
i've just started watching gardneners world, i can hunt the article myself probably. keep meaning to look up their website,so thanks for the reminder and the tip. wildlife pond sounds good. so many ideas!

 

Oh, you are as bad as me - I brought my cats back from Australia where we had a pool surrounded by tropical plants. If I wasn't rescuing lizards who had dropped their tails to distract whichever cat was "playing" with them I was scooping out various insects from the pool and willing them to live!

 

lol yeh we sound as bad as each other, but i dont think thats a bad thing

just thinking about my 'trough' wondering if it might be a good idea to get it off the concrete blocks and have it lower instead, someone mentioned building a rockery around it - i think that could work and i could move it to back onto the grass.
someone in another thread also mentioned their garden was in the yellow phase - that sounds cool having different colour combos for different times of the year, but maybe thats a bit adventurous for me at this stage.
might start a thread where i can just post all my pics and concentrate everything in one area maybe then i can see the progress better.

 

that's quite a nice idea, a rockery would help the trough blend in more and could create lots of cubby holes for frogs, beetles etc. You could plant the rockery with wildflowers or bee happy plants like lavender and you could have a terrific wildlife haven

 

I think that this is the best idea yet and can almost see it already! Being off the patio would also make it calmer for all the critters that make it their home.

 

Hi mgn- If you decide to make it into a water feature you will find after a while you will be the proud owner of murky, smelly water unless you arn't going to plant it up. Another suggestion would be to put some gritty soil in it and a few flattish rocks and cover with fine gravel then add some minature rock plants. Could be an all year round patch of colour if you pick the right plants.

 

Yet another alternative :D

I'm just back from Morrisons and they are selling pond plants and marginals faily cheaply. Got a mixed box with 1 Miniture Water Lilly (Pygmaea Rosea), 1 Miniture Cattail (Typha Minima) and 1 Japanese Arrowhead (Sagittaria Japoninca) for �£5.99. Throw in some oxygenators as well and I think you could have a very pretty feature there!