Subject: Re: Help with water feature From: "Bill Robinson" <roseguy@gte.net> Organization: Date: Thu, 11 Mar 99 17:02:19 Message-ID: <MOD$990311.10319@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
Col Brokenshire wants to plant a cast iron bath tub and
make it into a water feature for his garden. He asks for
tips on preparing the tub and its installation.
The cast iron will, of course, corrode and generate high
levels of iron in the soil if left untreated. It doesn't take a
lot of extra iron to make the soil toxic. The tub exterior
could be coated with some asphalt product like Henry's
to retard the corrosion but the asphalt would be soil toxic.
Maybe the better plan would be to treat the tub exterior
with the kind of polyester they use with fiber-glass. The
polyester resin would last a long time and I believe that
it would essentially be inert relative to the soil's environment.
I'd dig a hole deeper and wider than the tub, put in a 3"-4"
bed of washed sand for the tub to rest on. Put in the tub and
then back fill with more sand to keep the soil away from the
tub. I'd then surround the tub with potted plants and dress the
top few inches with some attractive organic mulch to hide
the construction.
If I were to bury a bath tub in my garden, I'd add a few
goldfish. The goldfish + the plants + the various organisms
that will find and live in the tub + gasses in the atmosphere +
the energy derived from the sun will essentially equal an
ecosystem for all to enjoy including the gardener.