Friday, June 04, 2010

Hypertufa

I love the look of concrete bowls in the garden but hadn't been able to find any at household sales. I saw some articles about hypertufa and decided to give it a try. The recipe I used was
1 part Portland cement (no stones)
1 part perlite
1 part peat moss
1 part water (approximately)
The perlite and peat add texture and keep the items fairly light weight.I got a few different shaped plastic items and covered them with plastic wrap. (The recipe says you can also use Pam but I didn't try that.) If you want a smooth surface on the outside then use the inside of the bowl. I did learn that the item must be the height you want so the cement holds itself up. I should have cut the tops and handles off the green bowls.
The urn like item is plastic and I got it for 50 cents at a sale. I used it for a base and just covered it with cement. Remember to put holes in the bottom for drainage.
These bowls are great to add color to my shade garden and can be easily moved to different areas. The bowl for this one was the largest bowl from a cheap plastic set.
I planted a fuscia in the 'urn'.
Impatients in most of the others.
This was a fun, fairly inexpensive item to make that requires no special skills. I had to buy a 90 pound bag of concrete which is way more than I needed but it was still fairly cheap[.
I'd be interested if you've ever tried it to see what you made.
Let me know if you give it a try.

7 comments:

Suzanne said...

Oh I LOVE these! They are gorgeous in a rustic, natural sort of way! Thank you so much, Jean, for the "recipe." I definitely want to try this.

Anonymous said...

The concrete bowls and urn look great, especially with the flowers that you planted inside them!

Wendy said...

What an amazing idea! But how on earth did you get a 90 lb. bag of cement home?

Anonymous said...

I've seen other bloggers making these great looking containers. Thanks for the info & photos Jean, maybe I'll give it a try sometime. :)

Anonymous said...

I've seen other bloggers making these great looking containers. Thanks for the info & photos Jean, maybe I'll give it a try sometime. :)

Manuela@A Cultivated Nest said...

They look so great! This has been on my project to do list for several years but I'm just never gotten around to it. You make it look so easy!

Manuela

Rock River Stitches said...

Hi Jean, I've made a few of these and have some pictures of the ones I made on my blog. I have 3 more that I made a month ago and waiting for them to cure is little longer before I plant in them. Yours turned out great!

Tammy