Leicestershire, United Kingdom

Hypertufa for ponds.
A few days ago someone posted about hypertufa for mushrooms and it got me wondering about whether it's a suitable material for a pond.
The truly tiny yard has a shady corner that is crying out for a little pond and waterfall but all the ready made pond liners are too big and the cascade waterfalls are too high - combination/self contained units just don't do it for me (except one that I say at a mere £6000)
I have some pieces of granite - not enough for a proper rockery but too much to just discard and I'd quite like to build something that looks like it might be a natural outcrop with the wall built over it (planting to hide the join) with a spring flowing over into a shallow pool that then looks as if it's disappearing back underground.

The borders in the yard are about 12 inches wide and I don't want the pond to extend much beyond that and for the single fall waterfall to be no more than 18-24 inches.
So.... I have he stone to dress the mound, which I'd waterproof with a piece of pond liner, but would hypertufa make a good pond?
I don't want to have fish in it, and being enclosed by brick walls I'm not expecting to attract frogs etc but I'd like something that would attract insects for the birds and that has shallow areas to act as a birdbath.

I found the image below that is something like what I have in my mind's eye, and about the right size if you imagine the pieces of rock to be not much more than 2-3 inches. (The image is of a "pondless" waterfall over a retaining wall)

Or is the whole hypertufa idea daft!? And should I just go with a piece of butyl liner?

• 23 Aug, 2013