No Heavy Lifting with Hypertufa Faux Stone Planter

(and a bonus on an inexpensive home-made rustic cement birdbath)

This old guy is done moving heavy planters around – especially the stoneware in which my hardy cacti and succulents look great – and I can’t afford real  tufa, which is a naturally-porous limestone that can be easily carved into slow-draining planting troughs. So I finally got around to making a lightweight faux stone trough out of an old hippy recipe called hypertufa.

While it certainly looks like aged stone, hypertufa is a hardened mix of readily-available ingredients that can be pressed over a pot-shaped form, easy to move around and can stay out all year.

My first attempt here took just a couple of hours and turned out pretty well, if I say so myself. Here is my step-by-step.

Ingredients

• Portland cement
• Real Canadian peat moss (CAN use coconut coir)
• Perlite or vermiculite
• Small amount of concrete reinforcing fibers (small bags in store cement section)
• Water

Materials

• Mixing bucket
• Trowel
• Plastic food wrap
• Rubber gloves (yes!)
• A form (upside down pot, bowl, plastic or wood box, shaped pile of dirt, etc.)

Process

• Place the form on a plastic sheet, and cover with food wrap to keep mix from sticking on
• Mix dry ingredients in equal parts, plus a handful of fluffed up concrete reinforcing fiber
• Gradually add water, mixing and patting until the mix is like moist dough – can be made into a ball without falling apart
• Press around the form, starting at the bottom, until it is 1-2 inches thick
• Use your finger or a stick to poke drainage holes
• Cover with plastic for 1-2 days to let the mix dry and get firm
• Uncover, carefully remove from form, open drainage holes, and allow to dry completely another few days. Brush off rough edges
• Allow to cure another few days before rinsing a few times to remove dry alkaline residue

DONE!

BONUS : Inexpensive home-made rustic birdbath

A perfect touch that birds, butterflies, bees, and occasional squirrels actually use!

My cottage garden needed a heavy, rustic bird bath, but I was quickly put off by how much a decent one costs…. So I made one just like my great-grandmother’s, using a single 3-dollar sack of ready-mix concrete.

After making a thick paste by gradually working water into the dry concrete mix, I spread it over a low, wide, flat-bottomed pile of garden dirt that was covered with plastic food wrap to keep dirt from sticking to the concrete. Halfway through spreading the concrete I added a piece of hardware cloth to strengthen the finished project. After drying for two days I turned it over, smoothed the rough edges, and hit it with some paint (not enough to be a prob to wildlife) to make it look aged.

It worked so well I added another at the herb garden I curate at the agriculture museum in my hometown.