Sally Scalera

Brevard County Horticulture Extension Agent
3695 Lake Drive -- Cocoa FL 32926 -- 321-633-1702

Holiday gift suggestion

Dec. 2, 2006

Tis the season to give gifts and celebrate the holidays. For you crafty gardeners who like to grow or make your own gifts you may want to consider making some hypertufa containers for your friends and family. They are easy and fun to make.

Hypertufa containers are a porous, rock-like material that can be shaped into a variety of different shaped containers for plants. You can even make hypertufa stepping stones, birdbaths, hollow garden spheres or leaf castings. Hypertufa looks like rock and was originally shaped after old English horse troughs that used to be carved out of natural stone. The addition of peat moss, vermiculite or perlite to the cement mixture makes hypertufa creations lighter weight then pure cement. Textures can vary depending upon the recipe and the amount of water used.

The basic ingredients for hypertufa are: water, dry Portland cement (not Quickcrete), Sand (either builder’s or sandbox) and either peat moss, vermiculite or perlite.

Other materials that you will need are rubber gloves (to protect your hands from the cement), a face mask to use when mixing the dry ingredients, a container for mixing everything in like a wheelbarrow for ambitious crafters or plastic bowls for smaller projects, molds for the containers (examples include plastic tubs, liter drink bottles, foil pans, mixing bowls, styrafoam coolers, cardboard boxes, milk cartons, etc.), trowel for mixing if you don’t want to use you hands and measuring containers like cans or buckets.

A basic recipe is the best to try first and it is simply 1 part cement, 1 part sand and 1 part peat moss, vermiculite or perlite. When I made my hypertufa containers I used vermiculite in the recipe. Depending upon the size of the container that you want to make you will need a can or bucket to measure the ingredients with. This recipe is easy to measure since you are only measuring by volume and not weight.

To begin, find a good workspace where you can be messy and get all of the supplies together. First, put on your face mask and rubber gloves, mix the cement and sand together thoroughly and then mix in either vermiculite, perlite or peat moss. If you are mixing up a large quantity for a big container then divide the mixture into smaller batches to make it easier to blend. Make sure that all of the ingredients are thoroughly mixed together before adding any water.

Slowly mix in small amounts of water using only enough so that the mixture is easy to work with. Aim for a consistency of cottage cheese because you don’t want it crumbly (too dry) or runny (too wet). Check for the right amount of water by squeezing the mushy mixture in your hands. Only a few drops of water should be pressed out and the clump of hypertufa should hold together. If this doesn’t happen then add just a little more water, mix and set it aside for about 10 minutes. Then, come back and to the test again to see if it is the right consistency.

You don’t want your hypertufa mixture to get runny. Too much water will make the rock texture disappear and cause the container to be weak. Weak containers will crumble after they have dried.

I then covered my mold, which was a metal mixing bowl, with a plastic grocery bag and placed it upside down on a table covered in newspaper. (If you won’t be able to leave your container where you made it, for a day or so then, place a board underneath your mold so that you can move it, still on the board, to a safe place to begin curing.) I started pressing the mixture on the top of the bowl and working down the sides.

Try to get the sides thick so it will be sturdy. Since I was working on the outside of my mold I had to flatten the top with a board so that the container would sit level when dry. Press the hypertufa to eliminate any air pockets. Now, create drainage holes in the bottom of the container and cover it in plastic and let it sit for 24 hours. Larger containers should be allowed to sit for two days.

After you have let your container set for a time remove the plastic. Don’t be surprised if it is “sweaty.” Let the container sit for another week or so inside to cure and harden. Before anyone uses the container for plants they should be set out in the rain or hosed down to leach out the lime. Rosemary plants would probably love them as they are, but most plants won’t like the high pH.

Hypertufa recipes can also be used to make a variety of other garden items so, if you want to be creative during the holidays here is an idea that you can get started on this weekend. Just search the internet for hypertufa and you will be amazed at what you can make for gifts or for yourself!