Dear Sibe,

I have had the offer of an old Belfast sink which I got really excited about. Now I have accepted it I don't really know what to do with it. Can I make a water feature out of it? I don't really want to go into planting herbs. Can you help? My garden is actually on a slant so it would have to be a small water feature. Help please.

Our Gardening Expert replies:

Hi,

You're quite lucky to get this - Belfast sinks are not easily obtainable these days. For those who don't know, Belfast sinks have flat bottoms and vertical sides and are the shape of a stone trough.

There's lots more you can do with this than just plant herbs in it! Belfast sinks are highly prized amongst growers of alpine plants and this would be a very suitable use for the sink. The only problem is the intense white glazing. If you find it is too glaring, there are many ways to disguise the colour, from just painting (though finding a paint that will adhere is not so simple), to using other methods to hide the glaze such as coating with hypertufa.

A friend of mine was keen on very, very carefully chipping off the white glaze on his sinks with a small hammer and chisel - this took a long time but he was very patient and the end result was quite an attractive stone-like trough. I think the hypertufa option is easier and can look almost as good. To coat with hypertufa you need to first thoroughly clean the outside of the sink. Then apply a coating of PVA adhesive around all sides over the top and down inside an inch or so. Allow this to dry and then apply another coat and while this is tacky push on your mixture of hypertufa.

This is a mixture of gritty sand, cement and peat or a peat alternative in the proportions; 1 sand: 1 cement: 2 peat made into a stiff mix and then pressed onto the surface. Push on evenly all the way round. You may need to do this in two stages bottom half first, top half later to make sure it adheres properly.

Allow to dry for a week or so and then you will see the stone-like appearance of the sink.

If using for alpines be sure to use a well drained compost mix - say John Innes No3 with a quarter part of grit added. Make sure the plug hole is completely unblocked to allow free drainage.

If you really want a water feature, first make sure the sink is absolutely level. There are many things you can do to make an attractive water feature, but one that works really well is to place the sink on a base adjacent to a house wall, then have water coming out of a feature fixed to the wall above the sink - say a gargoyle or lion's head. This water then cascades down into the sink itself into which you could put water plants etc. I've seen some really attractive features made like this. Another possibility is to have water trickling down a fern-encrusted wall, draining into the sink which forms your sump and houses the water pump.

With a little imagination this could be the centrepiece of your garden.

All the best,

Sibe.

Have a look at Simple Water Features for more effective ideas.

The above top right-hand picture is of a Water Lily 'Nymphaea Aurora' available from Crocus. This dwarf water lily is one of the best varieties for a tub or small pond.