Stone Water Feature

Went to the Rochester Garden Show yesterday. It was excellent. Very creative with the theme, Through the Garden Gate. This was a water feature that I would like in my yard. I asked how much? $800! Of course someone had to spend hours chiseling out these huge rocks. Installing it would require machines. I'd like to do the same idea using concrete or hypertufa, made on the spot. Has anyone ever attempted this? I'm not interested in growing anything in it. Want to attract birds to drink and bath and the sound would be nice.

I've seen do-it yourself fountains in the magazines that seem easy enough to construct. Rather than having huge solid stones drilled with holes for tubing... you could use smaller stones and arrange them to hide the tubing. The water usually is recycled from a tub that's sunk in the ground. A pump placed into the tub keeps the water flowing.

Check out this site! http://www.timpyworks.com/

I want to make a fountain/waterfall and this looks like the way to go.

I did read on one site that because they are so porus you need to caot the inside with parafin but that it is easy to do.





This message was edited Monday, Mar 24th 5:59 AM

Thanks, Poppysue, the wheels are turning in my head and that's a good idea having a reservoir in the ground with goose egg size boulders, then flat rocks or hypertufa staggered up with water spilling over. I can see it now!!

Thanks for the link about hypertufa, zanymuse. There is so much you can do with that stuff. I've never tried it but did go to a studio of a person who does and gives classes. It is messy but like that link said we all enjoyed making mud pies as children.

If, or when I should say, I get it done I'll post a picture.

Here is an url for the instructins and recipe to make your own:

http://www.ptech.co.nz/digthis/knowledgebase/hypertufa.html

Here's a fountain made with pebbles http://www.sampler.com/decideas/archives/archiveaug99/project1.html

Trillium_girl I loved your water photo, and don't see any reason why you couldn't fashion your own hypertufa rocks. I have made some troughs with hypertufa. I don't think the rocks would be so porus as not to work and hold water. My soil is very sandy, so when the fellow who works for me and i were building my lily pools we used hypertufa around the edges then put the liner. Has worked well for about 7 years. Donna

When I went to the demo for hypertufa, the woman said she had experimented with birdbaths made out of it. She said to paint the inside with a clear waterproofing sealant like they use on basement walls. The problem she had was hypertufa shaped like a birdbath on a pedestal was too wide and broke from the weight of the water. But I'm thinking my plan would have the weight distributed very evenly across the bottom. I am going to try this. I'm always coming up with ideas and never had the time to do them. I was laid off from my job and have decided to just retire early and have fun. Thanks for all your suggestions and ideas. It has helped me to formulate mine better.

Plus, if you do it on the ground, you will have total support for the base, and it will be balanced also. You have inspired me to do it, I have been wanting a fountain/ water feature forever, so has hubby so I will start this way.

And Trill, congratulations on your decision! I was forced to retire early by illness, but I love EVERY minute of it! Just consider it new-found freedom with pay!

Hugs, Lavanda

Do keep us posted on any hypertufa making you do! I wanted to do that last year and didn't get to it. I really want to try it, but I know that I need to set aside a good day for it once I have all the tools, shapes & ingredients.

If you take pictures as you go along, I'd love to see your work for inspiration here :)

Poppysue, I made a similar pebble fountain a few weeks ago, I buried a 5 gal bucket and put hardware cloth over it to hold the stones up out of the water, it was so easy! My dog thinks I made it just for her to use as her personal drinking fountain!!

I promise I will.

Carena could you post a picture? Sounds great. How cute your dog likes it. I babysit my son's dogs and bet they would like it too. I will post when I get mine done. I'll have to wait until weather warms a bit here as we are still getting freezing nights and I plan on doing the hypertufa part of the project in the garage.

Lavanda, your email box is bouncing. I sent you a response about the Purple Majesty. Not too many extra so no worries...

Yes, I just was cleaning it out.

Good, I was worried about it.

Cks in the mail. (really)

Yep I'll take a pic (if I can find my camera), it looks pretty much just like the one in the thread but it's square because I put it in a weird cut-out section of my patio. I'm thinking of moving it into a cute little birdbath I found.

Another good one for us to look at again....some really good ideas here too...
Dee

I saw a cool segment on HGTV's Extreme Homes about a man who builds and sculpts with a material he calls Flying Concrete. It's a lightweight concrete similiar to hypertufa but has some reinforcing, which might be good for pools and water containers.

Go to his web site and check out the Sculpture page. It may give you some ideas. There are also some Flying Concrete urns of a good size somewhere on the site...

http://www.geocities.com/flyingconcrete/

I doubt seriously that hypertufa would hold up to constantly running water. My spousal unit built a pond and potio on very sloping property so he had to dig out a bank and back fill to level the land for the patio. This left an ugly bare bank right beside the patio, so he used terra-cotta colored concrete to cement over the bank, leaving planting pockets and 2 waterfalls in the wall. It looks great and natural. He also had some rock in the waterfalls, especially right at the angle where the water starts down, which can hold up without eroding.

Picture...wanna see a picture!