Trying "Tufa" at last!

Not sure if the phrase what is "hypertufa" is a Jeopardy question waiting its time (possibly has surfaced already?) but I just couldn't wait any longer to try my hand at making these faux stone pots for my own garden. I knew there was a recipe and I Googled it extensively. One site I found was easy to understand and had some nice photos, I give them complete credit for my project! You can find it here.

Recipe: equal parts Peat Moss, Pearlite, and Portland Cement. Mix the first two by hand and then wearing mask, add the cement. The only size bag of this exact type of cement (and please refer to the other web site!!) only comes in 94 pounds!!!! Yikes, had to ask for Home Depot help there. I would experiment with a small amount first and small containers to get the hang of it. :)

Spray your plastic containers with some sort of release agent...we had this can of Pam to use. Plastic forms from your kitchen or from the dollar store worked quite well! Spray both inside and outside forms. (again, see the link to a better explanation)

Well, let me tell you what the other site doesn't say now...it was hard! Finding forms and trying to compress the cement mixture into the spaces meant for "walls" was not an easy task! I realized this was a first attempt. Plus considering the bag of Portland Cement was 94 lbs, I figure I will be making these for another week or so!

Steps 2 & 3....cover with plastic, 24 hours, remove inner mold, recover. Wow, this is labor intensive!

 Day 3 the forms are removed and the hypertufa pots finally seem like a reality!  They will be buffed up a bit and will become a lighter, more rock-like color as they dry. Back into the plastic bags again for few weeks!!!!

 Just for fun, I placed a weed I dug up into one of the forms....it will become one with the rock step in color as soon as it completely dries!  I can already tell I will make more of these. I have to! 94 pounds of cement and counting down. Anyone want to try their hand at a hypertufa pot in the next week call me!!!!