I had an old Belfast/butler’s sink in my old garden but I had to leave it behind when we moved so when I saw another old one in a particularly eclectic shop that I enjoy having a rake around in I just had to buy it. It was a bargain too!
I sited it close to the bench/pergola so that you can either rest your weary feet on it or rest your cup/glass on the handy soap indentations. The photo above was taken in early April 2017 when I started this project. I’ve filled the sink with some sedums, miniature viola, thrift, a miniature willow is in the top right hand corner and a miniature cotoneaster to the left.
The photo above was taken a week or so later when I had more or less finished planting it up.
The photo below is how it looked in August 2017 I think.
This week I’ve been working hard in the garden digging up the grass around the sink, it’s very difficult to mow around it, so I’m busy putting a tile edging around the area and plan to fill it with small hardy plants and slate shards. I’ve actually planted some box plants around the bottom of the sink, eventually it’ll look like a box of box I hope, when I get around to clipping it all.
I plan to get the ground around it sorted out next week – weather permitting.
Very nice, Katrina. I love seeing the various stages.
tracybham,
Hopefully I’ll have another photo of the next stage soon.
That’s a lovely little garden! After reading your post, I remembered that I used box to edge my gardens in Marshfield. The gardens in our new house need more definition. I don’t like them just mingling with the lawn. I hope I can find some inexpensive box. I used to propagate them by just sticking a green clipping into the soil.
Joan,
I’m going to be taking loads of box cuttings soon as I have to trim the plants around the bottom of the summerhouse. I hate to put any possible cuttings in the compost, it seems such a waste! I love box but if you have a lot of it it’s very time consuming keeping it neat.
I love sink gardens! It’s looking well-established already!
Sandra,
I was surprised at how quickly it looked quite mature.
Lovely plantings, and where did you source your stones and gravel – from a stream nearby? Interesting colours in the wee stones.
Valerie,
I got a bag of gravel from a garden centre, I don’t know where they get it from though, I also use it for drainage at the bottom of pots. The bigger stones were picked up from various beaches, I probably shouldn’t! I’m like a three year old and have to pick up any interesting stones, I’m always looking for fossils too. A purely sandy beach is of no interest to me.