What is the lightest (in weight) stone chippings or pea gravel I can buy?

And when it's dry, it's going to blow away.

Reply to
Huge
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lling them with stones to make a living roof.

amount needed is approx 10m3 - so vermiculite isn't an option as I can't b uy it in bulk and bags would work out far too expensive.

Thanks everyone. Really interesting stuff there.

I did have a structural engineer report on the roof when we put steel beams in (so that we could remove two of the internal supporting pillars). The s tones were already part of the structure then so I'm just being over-carefu l because the holes i've knocked through the 1m-thick wall to make entrance s have effectively removed 5 sections of mass-concrete from one side of the structure. As this means I now have 6 huge pillars supporting that side, - instead of a single-structure wall, I'm keen to make sure that section is carrying les s weight than before. The engineer didn't seem to think it's a problem but the whole thing is built on clay so I'm more concerned about sinking than w hether the roof itself will support the stones.

I am trying to avoid non-natural products as a growing or substrate medium, but it does seem that lightweight gravels will also generally absorb an ex tra 30% in weight when wet. I'll have a look at the slag option though. Nic e idea. H.

Reply to
Howard Coakley

There is a water retaining foam product which I thought was called Sahara but Google is unable to find.

Reply to
Tim Lamb

In message , Tim Lamb writes

Might be Oasis but still not quite what I expected.

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Reply to
Tim Lamb

Water retaining gels are widely available, but I would think uneconomic for large areas. Mostly for potted plants AIUI.

To the OP, a lightweight porous granule that absorbs water is still going to be lighter than a solid granule. Think about it: with a wet porous granule, you're replacing air in the pores with water, density

1 g/cc. With a solid granule of the same size, you're in effect replacing the air in the pores by more solid stuff of the same density; about 2.6 g/cc, so solid granules will still be heavier than wet porous granules of the same size.

As another poster said, slag is very alkaline; I don't think many plants would like growing in neat slag. In smaller quantities it's used to raise the pH (reduce the acidity) of acid soils to make them more suitable for growing veg, applied at a few hundred grams per square metre.

Reply to
Chris Hogg

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