Hoping this is container gardening

Hi everyone.

We got a belfast sink a few weeks back it's chipped and has a few cracks in it but other than that it's pretty solid can't grumble for a fiver.

We've built a frame to support it and want to plant it up with some winter bedding plants, I'm just concerned as it is it won't drain enough, if that's the case is it drillable with the right bits?

 

That's a nice frame you've made for it
I've got one exactly the same, and it seems to drain perfectly well through the plughole. I've put lots of crocks and gravel at the bottom of it and I've grown some salad things in it.
Make sure it's level so that the water runs through the plughole easily.

 

You could maybe raise it slightly on the side without the plughole to encourage any excess water to drain downwards. I put a couple of small pebbles under mine. Winter bedding should be fine, it’s alpines that dislike wet soil.

 

Its probably possible to drill but I wouldn't want to try it.

 

That's what I was thinking.

 

Have you tried putting water in it @mazambo , just to see if any of the existing cracks leak?
I think you could drill holes by using some decorators' tape stuck in the area you want to do it, which is a method for drilling into tricky material, but there's always a risk that it'll just split.

I have a large container that was my Dad's, which was filled with acid to strip lacquer from musical instruments [he repaired them] and it weighs a ton, and I often thought of trying to drill holes in the base so that I could use it for plants, but that's what I was worried about. A year or two ago, being exposed to extremes of weather, it cracked, so it's saved me that job.

 

Thanks @fairygirl

Never thought about seeing if the cracks leak. The original idea was a home for some carnivorous plants we've been given but looking into that it wasn't as simple as I thought it would be so we're going for a winter display this year, we'll go for a layer of crocks and gravel and plant up with winter bedding plants.

If no drilling is done it might still be used for the carnivorous plants but we need to learn a lot more about them before we make that decision.

 

It really just comes down to how quickly, or not, any water drains through the plughole @mazambo , and during winter that will be the test. How sheltered you have it - ie how much it's in the path of any rainfall, will also determine that. It's always a tricky thing to judge, and it's a rather large container for you to move around and experiment with!
I hope you can successfully get a nice display, and then you can judge how wet/dry the sink is, and how suited it would be for your carnivorous plants.
Sometimes it depends on the size of the root system of any plants too, so having a large depth of grit/gravel in the base and just a small amount of good soil mix on top, will be suitable for quite a lot of things, and there's enough time for any excess water to slowly drain away, should there be a large amount filtering through.
I have heavy clay soil here, and plenty of rain, but I grow sedums etc in my gravelled garden, as they're not really planted as such - they're basically planted on top. The root systems are shallow and don't extend beyond the soil layer they originally grew in when in their pots. It means they don't reach the sticky clay layer, and are therefore fine.
It's not exactly the same as plants in a container, but it's a similar process where drainage could be a big problem.

 

Should be drillable with a small ,sharp TC masonry drill bit. Turn the hammer action OFF !
Only the glaze will be really hard, cool bit with water.

 

Just an idea if you think there is likely to be drainage issues out of what is usually a fairly large hole to be honest.

A short section of plastic guttering drilled and upside down along the length of the sink,covered with a layer of course grit might work to move excess water to the hole.
But I really think if you just put crocks over the hole and use a well drained compost, containing grit, it should drain OK.

 

Yes - if you decide to drill more holes, start small!