HYPERTUFA

Hypertufa

Hypertufa, sounds like the school-yard bully on a sugar high. It’s actually a substance that you can mix up to make your own garden containers and art.
You’ll need a wheel barrow or very large container to mix the stuff up in. Hypertufa recipe: 17L vermiculite, 17L peat moss, 11L Portland cement, 13L water. Mix the dry ingredients together then add the water. Wear gloves and mix by hand. You can pretty much use anything as a mold for your creation. If what you’re using isn’t plastic, cover it well with plastic sheeting or garbage bags. Apply the mixture around your mold about 5 inches thick, slapping it to remove any air bubbles. Once the mold is covered, stick dowel or sticks into the bottom for drainage. Loosely cover your creation in plastic to keep moisture from evaporating. Mist occasionally the first few days and wiggle the dowels so they’ll be easy to remove. After a week remove the plastic and let it sit for 5 days. Remove the mold from your creation. You can smooth any rough edges with a file or file the base so it doesn’t rock. Remove dowel from drainage hole. Hose off any lime that might have surfaced. Allow to cure for a couple of weeks before planting.
Hypertufa looks heavy but it isn’t. If it cracks down the road you can fix the crack next time you whip up another batch of hypertufta.
I’m making mine so they will fit in my windowsills for the winter. That way I can just bring them inside and still enjoy fresh herbs without having to dig things up.

Hypertufa