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I finally planted my hypertufa rock/tray

18 years ago

Now, if I can just keep the plants alive :)

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Comments (13)

ncgardengirl
18 years ago
Wow... I like that... it is SOOO neat! GL with the plants those look like the easy to grow ones though!
:) NCGardengirl
butterflybush
18 years ago
That really looks great. I think I have been there. Whispering rock, Utah, right? Are you growing that inside? Good luck with the plants. They are easy keepers, as NCGardengirl said. Another great RUSTINJ project!! BB
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wow - sounds like you have a handy pickup truck? And a strong back - all those rocks! Congratulations - what are you planting there - all freebies? Last year I got the leaf truck (they suck the leaf piles up at the curb in my neighborhood) to dump a load at the top of my driveway - and I made a lasagne bed. I got some stone slabs someone was throwing away, for the paths, and FINALLY finished planting my tropical garden last week - everything traded, divided, or started from seed - I am absolutely astonished I did not buy a single plant for it.
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My Hypertufa looks like concrete :-(
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Thanks, Billie I didn't cover it for the first night. I didn't want the piece to get the same texture as the bag. The next morning I covered it up first thing. As for the bird baths and the like, when knocking on them, I think the peat moss gives them a more muffled sound. This is why I thought it wasn't made of concrete (straight mortar). I'm feeling pretty confident about what my next piece will be. As for the manhandling, my next piece will require me to flip it over at some point, before it's too late to carve. So far, both of my molds have been outter molds. I've noticed that the rim, which is up against the plastic, which in turn is up against the floor, always has a plastic glue-like finish. I want to make sure I can manipulate this before the tufa is dry, and that will require flipping over. Also, I am going for a rock-like look, which means thicker walls, which means heavier piece, which means, handling it will require precise timing. You'd think I'm crazy going for something more difficult when this simple thing failed, but I think I learned some valuable lessons here. I'm going to start creating the mold. One of the lessons I learned, is you can make a mold out of anything. This new approach is going to be really interesting and I am surely going to post it here, hopefully with successful results this time :-) As for working outside, now is a good time here in FL, because it's not raining, although I did have a stroke of bad luck the next day, because it did rain. Luckily, my tufa had been covered by then ;-)
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echinaceamaniac, my Mac and Cheese, and my Tiki Torch are growing better, but no bloomstalks yet either! I can only hope that next year they will be alive and do better. Another one that really impressed me this year is After Midnight. I planted that one late in the season and its already 2 ft tall almost and blooming up a storm.
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Japanese art forms that incorporate living plant material into a dish garden setting or a landscape in a tray or on a rock are called either kusamono or saikei, and there is some info available on the internet. Kusamono leans heavily toward plantings of small native plants in bonsai dishes or trays with an emphasis on grasses. Saikei, is usually a planting on an interesting rock (most often to represent a mountain scene) or a planting in a tray that incorporates rock or other natural material and is presented as a miniature landscape scene. It sounds like the plant you described might be schefflera arboricola. In most instances, a more natural appearance is achieved if no waterproofing is used on the rocks, and adherence of epiphytes would certainly be improved by using materials in their natural state. The exception would be when using wood products (old branches, stumps, etc.) that contact moist soil. There are few mosses that will grow indoors w/o constant misting. There may be books available at the library, on e-bay, or through a book seller. You can also search the net using the words provided above as key words for photos and additional info. Al
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tango88
18 years ago
Very Nice!!! If they ever decide to film a "Mr. Bill" western...you have the movie set ready to go. Nice work.
rustinj
Original Author
18 years ago
So you say these plants are easy? Do they need to winter? I can't tell if I'm overwatering or not watering enough. Ha, now I remember why I was satisfied when it was just a rock :) Thanks for the feedback! Justin
airfun
18 years ago
Wow! that is fantastic! I sure hope the residents like it there, they sure look great :) Any tips and tricks on how create something so cool?

Tango that Mr. Bill gave me a good laugh from days gone bye! Thank you :)
kobold
18 years ago
Hey Justin

this rock would be perfect in my garden, but maybe bigger,
2x4x3 ft.Great work!

Andrea
Dena6355
18 years ago
Rustinj,
I thought I had posted something about this last night, but I must have missed the submit button.
The formation is really nice, and I can see that the plantings will really feel right at home.
Is this over the wire armature, similar to your rockfall formation?
I am curious how big and how heavy this is.
Dena
rustinj
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks! I posted the step-by-step details a long time ago, but it must have dropped off. For the rock armature, I used wads of paper wrapped in aluminum foil. If I were to do it again I think I'd go back to the wire lath (to make it lighter). The tufa was carved with scraps of lath and whatever tools I could find. The last layer was a slurry of cement water. It was painted with VERY dilute acrylic paint washes. The tufa tray has two pieces of wire lath sandwiched betweein the tufa layers. The size is about 36" wide and 20" tall. The rock weighs about 20lbs and the tray weighs about 15lbs.

Andrea, that sounds like a good project for Coastal Concepts :)
tufaj
18 years ago
That is really a great planter, Justin! Are you keeping it inside?

Jean
clairdo2
18 years ago
WOW THAT DOES LOOK GREAT !
rustinj
Original Author
18 years ago
Yes, Jean. I read that most of these plants are good for indoor and outdoor planters but It's the first time I've tried succulents. I'm looking forward to seeing how they grow.

Thanks,
Justin
flagtruck
18 years ago
PLEASE....post the instructions again...I am a newbie and just think that is the greatest piece! I grow a lot of succullents, just don't overwater. They will go a little dormant in winter so slack off on the water then. A greenhouse or inside in a bright cool area will work well for them, then in summer, outside in sun in your zone. Good luck with the plants...keep on doing great work.
rustinj
Original Author
18 years ago
Flagtruck,

Thanks for the tips, that helps a lot. I'm sorry, I didn't keep the instructions or write them down. Really, there's not a lot to it. Just make some odd-shaped armatures, cover them with tufa, and carve like crazy 24-36 hours later. Then coat it with a cement + water slurry (like thin pancake batter). If you exaggerate the cracks it will look just about right after the slurry. I think the recipe I used was 1:1:1:1 cement:vermiculite:perlite:peat. The stain was just normal artist's acrylic paint diluted with tons of water. I applied layer after layer of different colored washes. I hope that all makes sense. The hardest part is just carving random shapes. I looked at a picture of a rock and just tried to copy it the best I could.

Or, maybe we could swap tufa for plants :)

Please contact me if you need more info.

Justin

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More Discussions

Can you use coarse peat moss without straining in hypertufa recipe? Or

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