lvannote, cure/leach your tufa, cause fresh tufa and crete can be caustic. Find some moss growing in an environment similar to the location for your tufa. Glue your moss to your tufa then regularly mist your tufa twice a day for about a month with rainwater or distilled. Make sure that moss gets no direct sun and plenty of shade for that month. Use 1/4 strength miracid fert or similar acidic fertilizer for acid loving plants every two to three weeks in Spring and Fall. Go to this website: http://www.britishbryologicalsociety.org.uk/ and download the Moss Grower's Handbook by Michael Fletcher. Page 18 tells of gluing moss to substrate, in your case your tufa. Southern Indiana, particularly sandstone areas that are shaded and frequently damp and have high humidity should have about 100 - 200 different species of moss. Look in shaded damp ravines. I have seen brachythecium growing on smooth brick. You could just pick the moss up off the brick. Only gravity and a sheltered location kept the moss in place. Generally moss needs a way to attach to a surface. In time it can atach to a rough surface, but almost never to a smooth surface. Moss found on rocks will do well on tufa. Moss found on logs or soil may not. Moss transplants best from similar surface to similar surface. Rick

Thanks so much for all of the good suggestions! Cass, I do intend to test the PH and do some investigating. At the moment, however, we are in the middle of "de-bagging" and "de-tying up", and pruning, mulching, re-tying up, and feeding all of our roses and other plants all around our house, because the scaffolding is finally down (yay!), and the painters have moved on to the garage. So, I don't have lots of time right now to spend on these containers, and my main concern is to see if I can feed & water them enough to make the roses happier, and then I will play Sherlock Holmes later. I did think of the water issue when I noticed they were not growing, so I have been giving them extra water for a while. I felt so guilty when I thought of the PH issue that I went out and bought a bunch of that MAXSEA plant food (the kind for acid loving plants) , which is really expensive, but will be worth it if it works on the others as it is working on Susan Louise. Thinking about it, if pour planting soil was the issue, that might explain the immediate response to the food, although I was giving them normal food before. We have had the "soil horizon" issue here before, because our soil is very much clay. Last year I transplanted a Margo Koster, which died within 6 months. When we dug it up we discovered that in digging it a "big hole" what we had really done was dig it a bathtub that didn't drain, because the clay was so dense. Anyway, that certainly might be an issue. However, the 7 containers are all over the garden, and in some places are in beds that have been amended & planted for decades, where the soil is in pretty good shape. I will keep you posted on what I find out, and how they do with their new food. Thanks again for all of the good suggestions. jackie

I'd not heard that old concrete was PH neutral, so I can't honestly answer that question. I wonder how I'd go about testing this new information? One of the problems could be that by adding PH adjusters to the growing media such as (or especially) vinegar that the vinegar, or acidifying agent would cause the concrete to break down more quickly, and there may even be a noticeable chemical reaction (??) I've got some old and new concrete here I'll have to moisten with distilled water and test the PH and see what results I get. Interesting question, and by the way I don't generally recommend concrete because in addition to the PH, minerals will leach out and a true bog is naturally exceedingly low in not only nutrients but also dissolved minerals (unlike a fen which often has high amounts of dissolved minerals such as calcium)

Glad I can help, but I don't want to overstep my experience, so I will answer the questions where I have some hands on knowledge. Bottom drains - they will sweep any sand in the immediate vicinity, but have no effect on things a foot or two away as the velocity is negligible. The idea is to get solids to fall to the lowest point and get swept away. If the solids sit in rock crevices two feet away, they stay there. This is the source of the "rock bottm vs smooth bottom" discussion. River rounds - if you have them available, great. If you have to buy them by the bag, you are going to spend a lot to cover a 9000 gal pond. You understand the tradeoffs here- smooth doesn't stack well, but othewise is great. I doubt you can get anything over 30% with rounded stones. There are actually engineering formulae for determining the max stack angle for differnt shapes and density of material, but I don't think pond builders worry about them. Any slope that goes to the edge can be used by raccoons and herons. I find that having a deep pond where the fish can get away from predators helps a lot. I haven't used overhanging rocks. Sand is graded by size, source, and shape. You want a "sharp" builders sand for it's ability to pack. Playbox sand is usually too fine and rounded. Not the most critical issue however. Overhanging deck - a great Japanese design style that works the wonderful contrasts between man made/natural; linear/irregular; water/land; static/changing and many others. See my posts for one example. I use Ipe because it weathers to a beautiful grey, doesn't need any maintenance or finish, and doesn't contain any toxic metals to drip into the water. It has natural toxins of course which make it durable, but I don't let too much in the water. I have dropped a few pieces in by accident (it sinks like a stone) and haven't noticed any effect. I hope the rising water table and tree limbs don't damage the liner. Swimming pool installers (gunite and liner) often use a reverse drain valve meant to allow water in if the pressure is higher than the pool. The big tree limbs probably won't penetrate a rock lined pool but what about the roots? could be an issue digging and in the future. Good luck.