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I'll update as I go. The idea is I take some old bathubs, half bury them in the ground, and mound up bluestone spalls against the sides (and fix them to the lip of the tub) to create the illusions of a solid stone raised bed planter. I'll fill the tubs with good soil and plant some bananas and eugenia in them.
Ever glued rocks to cast iron?
Me either. This will interesting.
Well, here's where I'm at so far. I've sunk one tub into the ground having excavated the cavity for it. Three to go.
Step 1: Digging a hole ( oh goody). Three trailer loads of earth later, I have it deep enough. last one I kept as fill to set around the tub. As you can see, it's cracking clay. Weighs a tonne, bakes as hard as rock in summer and is actually quite good if you're into growing fossils.
Step 2: square out hole, level it, and get depth right. I've left about a foot of clearance on either side to stack the spalls. F' me, these tubs are heavy. Have to be over 100kg. I can move them a little but freehand with some leverage but yeah, no way I could have carted this up from the paddock without a trolley. Even that was horrendous, and I still have two to go. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, they say.
Step 3: Tub placed in hole, soil packed in and around around cavity. Pretty level and not slanting too much either end. If you ever have to do something like this, a good trick for tamping down clay so that it doesn't slake ( erode) is to break it up a bit with your shovel, hose it so that it turns to mud and then scrape it tight around the perimeter of whatever it is you've buried. Then, throw on some shovels of dry soil, about an inch deep, and then tamp it down. The clay wont stick to your shovel as you're patting it down, will compress better and will be less likely to erode. I used some spare sandy topsoil I had left over--this is ideal.
Step 4: Jesus, I'm glad that's over. I dug up a mystery object. It's old iron--maybe an old gate peg and chain lock? What do you think?
over and out.
s
Ever glued rocks to cast iron?
Me either. This will interesting.
Well, here's where I'm at so far. I've sunk one tub into the ground having excavated the cavity for it. Three to go.
Step 1: Digging a hole ( oh goody). Three trailer loads of earth later, I have it deep enough. last one I kept as fill to set around the tub. As you can see, it's cracking clay. Weighs a tonne, bakes as hard as rock in summer and is actually quite good if you're into growing fossils.
Step 2: square out hole, level it, and get depth right. I've left about a foot of clearance on either side to stack the spalls. F' me, these tubs are heavy. Have to be over 100kg. I can move them a little but freehand with some leverage but yeah, no way I could have carted this up from the paddock without a trolley. Even that was horrendous, and I still have two to go. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, they say.
Step 3: Tub placed in hole, soil packed in and around around cavity. Pretty level and not slanting too much either end. If you ever have to do something like this, a good trick for tamping down clay so that it doesn't slake ( erode) is to break it up a bit with your shovel, hose it so that it turns to mud and then scrape it tight around the perimeter of whatever it is you've buried. Then, throw on some shovels of dry soil, about an inch deep, and then tamp it down. The clay wont stick to your shovel as you're patting it down, will compress better and will be less likely to erode. I used some spare sandy topsoil I had left over--this is ideal.
Step 4: Jesus, I'm glad that's over. I dug up a mystery object. It's old iron--maybe an old gate peg and chain lock? What do you think?
over and out.
s
Even I'm not that old - or norty!
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