What fun it was to make mud pies, and toad houses over your foot.

This is an excuse to relive those childhood joys and have an original piece of art also.

I bought a plant in one of those pots that an independent nursery owner had made. It broke into three pieces within a few weeks. She probably did not use the right amount of some ingredient or maybe not let it cure correctly.

What ratio of the ingredients did you all use?

Ragna and Patty were a joy to work with, we did indeed have as much fun as it looks. Thanks for posting this Ragna.

The important thing is to have more portland cement than anything else in the mix so I add about half as much sand, peat, and perlite combined as cement. Portland cement will hold together really well when mixed with sand, it's just too heavy when made into planters. The only purpose of the peat and perlite is to lighten the mix so you can use as little of those as you want. Don't add too much water because it gets hard to work.

I've been meaning to do this for 3 years now. Shirley's pot with the lines is gorgeous! I can't wait to see everyone's treasures when they are done.

The first statement in the directions should read:
Get a handsome strong armed man

Yeah, soxxx, wonder what happened to all those mulch guys that used to be around on this forum????

Those new pots need to go in the garage this afternoon. It's best if they stay above 50F. Sorry, I should have thought about the front coming in yesterday. I'm moving mine, be careful and don't bend them and they should be fine.

I wondered about that (while I was painting a bench) yesterday. The bench is now drying in my computer room :)
Boss jim, that looks NOTHING like your picture from the plant swap. What HAPPENED????

Oh, I remember these guys, but forget who they mulched for? Anyone willing to admit??????

bossjim
I did not know you were a twin.
The arms do look strong enough.
When can y'all show up to stir the cement?
I will be asking several other TX gardeners

I think someone was sending them to Jolana's.

Shirley, thanks for the heads up on the best curing temperature for the hypertufa pots. I was surprised at how warm they were when they were removed from the car a couple of hours after I got home. They were almost hot which I guess was due to the action of the curing that had begun.

Good one PJ. Carrie, those guys didn't work for me. They were Jolana's mulch guys I think, but they do look strong, and determined--about what who knows.

My mulch guy is a *slightly* ;-) older version of the one pushing the wheelbarrow who worked for Carol Ann.

So now we know we have a gen-u-wine 'mulch guy', a 'hypertufa guy' and a 'Santa Jim guy' ... :-)

So now we know we have a gen-u-wine 'mulch guy', a 'hypertufa guy' and a 'Santa Jim guy' ... :-)

It's "happening" around here! LOL.

Oh I remember Carolann's mulch guy. You lucky dog, you. :)

I'm going to wait until Sunday afternoon to unmold my pieces. By then we'll be sure they are set.

I wonder if you can use that lightweight cement I use for making my Christmas Village Accessories? There is only one lumber company that sells it here in San Antonio. Barbra

Can you get the name of it for us? I'd be interested in knowing more details.

Just finished unmolding and still have a little finishing work to do. Then I'll set them aside in the garage to cure for a few weeks.

Here's the rest of the process

These were covered in the garage

This small one is easy, just peel the mold off

Done!

Now for the next one

Fold and pull the inside mold

Now for the outside

Turn it upside down and thump

The plastic in the bottom helps

This one needed extra help to loosen

Done!

Smooth the edges with a rasp

If the bottom is too thick, chip some out

If there are pits in the top, we mix some of the dust with water and fill smooth.

Barbra, I never heard of light weight cement in a sack, but looked it up on line and sure enough there is! Sounds very convenient, although the price might be a little higher than DIY hypertufa. One source had it listed at $16.00 for a two cubic ft. sack. It's certainly worth looking into! Thanks for telling us about it.

Shirley, I just came in from taking my pots out of the molds also. I did the first one and then Bob helped me a little with the other two.

The hypertufa around the top rim had to be chipped away a bit from the inside and outside edge. I also put a screw driver very gently between the plastic pot mold and the tufa to loosen it. Then turned it over and bounced it gentle a few times, did a little more loosing, etc. and after doing that several times the pot came out. The ones in the middle came out with no problems.

I then worked on smoothing the edges and the top with a very rough file and finished up with a steel brush.

On the pot which I had incorporated broken pieces of clay pots I did a lot of steel brushing on the top to show the pottery chips, and on the sides to rough it up a bit so it really looks antique. Antique 'what' I don't know ... lol, but it looks very old :-)

Since we don'e have a ceramic drill drill bit at the moment I went ahead and drilled a drain hole while the tufa was sill not completely hard. I put some wadded up plastic in the hole so the pot would hold vinagar water while it cures the rest of the way.

Whew! All that sure worked off some Sunday dinner!

I think they look really nice. I'll take and post some pictures when I get my breath.

Eager to see pictures of yours Shirley and Patty.

Roselee, I paid $27 for 100 lbs, 2 years ago. I bought it at Allen and Allen lumber company.
When it is hard to get out, use and air gun to shoot air into the outside edge, it should give. I have to use the cooking oil spray everytime I pour. Barbra

I really like those, Ragna. They turned out quite well. They will look great when they get weathered too.

From what I read online the lightweight cement is premixed with perlite and fiberglass. We buy portland cement in open bags from Lowe's for a dollar a bag so we save a lot mixing ourselves. The premix probably comes out really nice, but since these are all outside pots I don't worry that much about it.

I think both of you did an excellent job, the pots are just beautiful. I work on a much smaller scale, its alot of fun to create something from dust. Your pots will be around, way after I am gone. I am taking my Christmas Village with me. Barbra

Thanks Barbara!

Folks, I saw Barbra's Christmas Village last year and it is FANTASTIC! You have no idea how elaborate it is. Yes Barbara, take it with you when you 'go' ;-) but first take some pictures for us.

I'd love to see the pictures Barbra. If it has trees and plants then it could be considered garden related.

My husband said my Christmas Village has 2 zip codes. Last year I broke my hip and had surgery on 11-2-10. I was not out of the hospital until 11-20th, I started putting up the village the day after Thanksgiving. I was not able to stand very long, and had to use the metal clamp extenders for reaching. I was still able to get some of the village up. It is full of buildings and places that remind me of my childhood. Barbra