We are lucky to have a fair number of old Belfast sinks in the garden. they were used by generations of previous owners as water troughs for various animals.
This is one of the bigger ones. I cleaned it with some professional brick cleaning fluid to remove any trace of grease and then painted it with a masonry paint.
The drainage hole is covered with a pice of aluminium gauze, the kind used for car repars. It keeps the worms out and the soil in,
A few larger pieces of rock are placed over the gauze to keep it in place.
The base of the sink is then covered with a 2 inch or so layer of pebbles.
The next layer is smaller gravel with a little charcoal (wood ash in this case) added. This keeps the base of the sink sweet.
The sink is filled with a mixture of equal parts composted bark, sharp sand, 5mm. grit and sterilised top soil.
We are fortunate in having a large number of rocks handy.
These were placed to form planting pockets and more compost added.
Finally a 2 cm. deep layer of 10 mm. gravel is put over the top. I find this size better than the 5mm. grit asit does not get so easily washed off.
I already had bought the plants to go in it. All of these are small cushion forming alpines.
And the final scene. Given a little time the plants will make quite reasonable size cushions.
