u/Crazyhairmonster

Been working on this shallow/ pond/fountain for the past few months. Still have to add the Mexican style water feature/fountain that will pour water into the pond. At this point I'm in the range of 60-70 hours of tiling work alone. Progress has slowed because it's now 109° and I'm on the verge of heat stroke.

My question is around grout. I planned to use epoxy grout only in the pump pit, at the lowest point, because it'll be underwater more than the rest of it (I also have some white epoxy left over from my shower project). That part is completely hidden with a large square drain cover. I don't plan to keep the pond filled with water and only use it when we're out around the pool or when we have friends over. My dogs like shallow, beach type water so they can play in it. It's also just too hot here in the summer and the water is going to be 140° because of the dark glossy finish and it being so shallow. I'd be fighting a never ending and never winning battle against algae. For the rest of it I planned to use Mapei Ultracolor Plus FA because

* I prefer the look of sanded grout

* It's cheaper

Is there a better sanded grout for underwater applications? I want to keep it as waterproof as possible though I do have like 5 coats of a liquid membrane covering the entire concrete base (concrete has steel mesh plus fiberglass strands to mitigate cracking.

Also what color do you think works best? My initial thought was a tan/sand color, possibly even in the haystack range. Main reason that it'll help with the transition from the pebbles to the regular Arizona dirt/gravel of the rest of the yard. At the beach entries I'm adding about 2 feet of concrete so I can embed larger river rocks and transition those to the pebbles, which transitions to the tile (all grouted).

My fear is that tan won't look good with the yellow. I've done a ton of talavera inside my house and always used regular Natural grey which seems to work with every color. The downside is it'll stick out at the beach transition area. I could sprinkle the grout, once it's applied, with decomposed granite so some of it sticks and helps with that area.

Sorry for the winded post. This project is borderline killing me and props to all the tile pros who do small tiles on the ground. My knees and back barely function anymore from being hunched over on my knees on a downward slope.

Here's some progress pics for those who asked and to be honest, to show off a bit because I'm a tad vain. At this point I'm in the range of 60-70 hours of tiling work alone. Progress has slowed because it's now 109° and I'm on the verge of heat stroke.

My question is around grout. I planned to use epoxy grout only in the pump pit, at the lowest point, because it'll be underwater more than the rest of it (I also have some white epoxy left over from my shower project). That part is completely hidden with a large square drain cover. I don't plan to keep the pond filled with water and only use it when we're out around the pool or when we have friends over. My dogs like shallow, beach type water so they can play in it. It's also just too hot here in the summer and the water is going to be 140° because of the dark glossy finish and it being so shallow. I'd be fighting a never ending and never winning battle against algae. For the rest of it I planned to use Mapei Ultracolor Plus FA because

* I prefer the look of sanded grout

* It's cheaper

Is there a better sanded grout for underwater applications? I want to keep it as waterproof as possible though I do have like 5 coats of a liquid membrane covering the entire concrete base (concrete has steel mesh plus fiberglass strands to mitigate cracking.

Also what color do you think works best? My initial thought was a tan/sand color, possibly even in the haystack range. Main reason that it'll help with the transition from the pebbles to the regular Arizona dirt/gravel of the rest of the yard. At the beach entries I'm adding about 2 feet of concrete so I can embed larger river rocks and transition those to the pebbles, which transitions to the tile (all grouted).

My fear is that tan won't look good with the yellow. I've done a ton of talavera inside my house and always used regular Natural grey which seems to work with every color. The downside is it'll stick out at the beach transition area. I could sprinkle the grout, once it's applied, with decomposed granite so some of it sticks and helps with that area.

Sorry for the winded post. This project is borderline killing me and props to all the tile pros who do small tiles on the ground. My knees and back barely function anymore.

Came across 4 Bursera Fagaroides on marketplace ($60 for all 4) that are white large. The first one is about 4+ feet tall and the other are 3ish. I'd like to start manicuring these to be more bonsai like and really add girth to the caudex (also bushier with random directly branch growth). The largest one I was going to plant in ground around a pond as part of a dense xeriscaped area of my yard so being able to train that one isn't as important (unless told itherwise. It does have the chubkiest caudex) but I was hoping to train the other three.

My questions are.. Am I too late and have these grown past the point where I can do a lot with them? If not, how would I begin to get the look/results I mentioned above. Fairly new to the caudex world and any and all information, tips, etc would be immensely appreciated.

Just noticed a few of my outdoor, potted, cacti and euphorbias have suddenly gotten a lot of these very small and very fast bugs. They seem to be hanging out just below the rock topper for the soil and I just noticed them today when I watered the plants. I'm 99% certain they weren't there a few days ago because it was pretty noticeable when they all scattered upon watering.

Doesn't look like mealy bugs or spider mites. Couldn't get a crystal clear shot but here's the least blurry ones my camera would do from up close.

Made a YouTube short so you can see how they live and how many there are.

https://youtube.com/shorts/WetJ7K-p7xk?si=-swGN7eae3Q5QKgW

Found these two Totem Pole (pachycereus schotti monstrose) cactii in the back of my landscapers truck when I was out talking with him today. He said he grabbed them from the side yard of one of his clients and that they had been sitting cut, and in a trash pile for almost 6 months before he took it to dispose of. I have a ton of Totem poles but never seen one growing as crazy as these two. They're growing aerial roots all over from trying to struggle to grow laying down on a pile of trash. The cuts are super calloused over and it's in a very gritty mix (70% pumice, 30% cactus mix). I watered it the first time today and really hoping he makes it as is. Especially if the crazy arms continue to grow all crazy. Think it'll live as is or will I have to chop them up and replant smaller, straighter pieces? Any idea how it grew as crazy as it did?

83 reviews

I had an empty area in my yard and a good (freaking horrible) idea to build a shallow pond with a broken talavera mosaic. I'm 35+ hours in with the tiling and maybe 1/3 of the way done (probably less). My entire body hurts from being hunched over and the idea of finishing this makes me want to cry. Props to the professionals who are hunched over doing this daily.

The area on the right has pebbles filtered in because it's sort of a beach entry from a flagstone path that leads up to it. Each section outlined by the blue/white 2x2's will have its own color/pattern/theme but I'm trying to also make them somewhat cohesive. I've tried everything to make this process faster but in the end it's just absurdly slow going trying to make the puzzle fit together as tight as possible (while making the puzzle itself). My process is to cut as many rectangular shapes as possible on the tile saw and then use tile snips to trim every piece to fit where I need it to go. After I cut it, I "sand" the edges on a cinder blocks to clean them up. I use a sharpie to sketch in the rough design but always end up starting from it as I go.

I'm happy with the looks so far but any idea to speed this up and not kill my knees and back? Also I'm a very messy tiler, excuse the mess