Is It Wise to Mortar Pebbles onto Shelves?
 

I have installed the liner of my 5m x 4m wildlife pond in Wiltshire,
England. I have designed it to have a metre-wide very gently sloping beach
all around and a shelf at about half depth.
Because the pond is quite large, and being a wildlife pond needs to be
copiously stocked, I will need to put in an awful lot of plants. I
therefore, except in the deepest water, will not have time to put each plant
in a basket and so will plant directly onto pebbles on the beach and shelf.
I have been advised that to prevent the pebbles migrating down to the
deepest part of the pond I should mortar them to the butyl liner. Or at
least mortar a dam of them along the lowest edges of the shelves.
As a novice to ponds, I am reluctant to do this which can't be undone if it
is wrong. For instance, once the mortar has set I will never be able to
adjust, move, repair, or whatever I might need to do to the lining.

Anybody any views on this?

many thanks

Davy

Is It Wise to Mortar Pebbles onto Shelves?
 

I'm not too crazy for mortar either, for the reason you mentioned and the
leaching that would drive up the pH.

My suggestion, which comes too late in this case, would have been to make a
dirt dam under the liner. Hopefully someone has a better solution for the
current problem. ~ jan

On Fri, 8 Sep 2006 20:59:31 +0100, "Davy"
wrote:

I have installed the liner of my 5m x 4m wildlife pond in Wiltshire,
England. I have designed it to have a metre-wide very gently sloping beach
all around and a shelf at about half depth.
Because the pond is quite large, and being a wildlife pond needs to be
copiously stocked, I will need to put in an awful lot of plants. I
therefore, except in the deepest water, will not have time to put each plant
in a basket and so will plant directly onto pebbles on the beach and shelf.
I have been advised that to prevent the pebbles migrating down to the
deepest part of the pond I should mortar them to the butyl liner. Or at
least mortar a dam of them along the lowest edges of the shelves.
As a novice to ponds, I am reluctant to do this which can't be undone if it
is wrong. For instance, once the mortar has set I will never be able to
adjust, move, repair, or whatever I might need to do to the lining.

Anybody any views on this?

many thanks

Davy

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