Replicate rugged dirt & root edge look

[Big Lou]

Would love to replicate this pond edge in a faux design for a section of my pond. If you are a genius and can tell me how please speak up.

Below is a faux bank but by professionals so no DIY info available.

 

[sissy]

Here they use round bales of straw .It looks like a long snake of it .When i was taking frogs away I saw it and asked the farmer and originally he said it was supposed to keep runoff from going in the pond but he found it made a great edging for the pond so he did not have to weed whack next to the pond edge .

 

[Mmathis]

Lou, that 2nd pic kinda reminds me of version 1.0 of the turtle bog, when pond & bog were combined. I needed for the shoreline to slope gradually enough for the turtles to be able to get in & out of the water easily (remember, these aren't aquatic turtles). After I had the liner in, I used plastic mesh to form my faux slope [along with rocks and stuff as fillers]. Then I rented a cement mixer [no WAY I was going to do this by hand!], got some concrete coloring and went to town! Actually, I think I used Portland & sand, and mixed my own 'cause I didn't need that much gravel aggregate....

It was a lot of work, but in the end it did look nice. I could have made it thicker which would have been better for walking on, but this was just for the turts, so..... I'll see if I can dig up some pics I took.

Not sure if you'd want to go that route, but it's an option.

 

[Mmathis]

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Lou, how much area are you talking about?

 

[Big Lou]

Four to five feet.

 

[Mmathis]

Four to five feet.

Oh, that's not too bad. My "turtle shoreline" was about 11 feet long, but was divided in almost-halves [girl side/boy side]. My above method would work very well for an area that size.....

 

[Big Lou]

pretty sure I can come up with something with a sloped shoreline. Prefer no rock but always a possibility. Alas, I'm a dreamer.

 

[Mmathis]

pretty sure I can come up with something with a sloped shoreline. Prefer no rock but always a possibility. Alas, I'm a dreamer.

You can "sculpt" concrete to make it look like just about anything -- even a a dirt & rooted shoreline, I'm sure!

 

[Big Lou]

Quality faux creations are art.

 

[DrCase]

Concreet would be easy to shape and would be a stable bank

 

[Big Lou]

Thanks Doc

 

[Mmathis]

Concreet would be easy to shape and would be a stable bank

I agree! And one thing I did with the turtle shoreline was to poke a few holes through the mix before it dried. That way, you can stick a plant [like Creeping Jenny....] in the hole -- it will be well watered because there will be pond water underneath the concrete-facade -- like you do with sticking plants between rocks.