What exactly is hypertufa? Well, it’s a man made tufa looking material that is used to create a variety of garden art objects. It’s a sort of artificial stone that was created to substitute the natural tufa rock. In this article we will take a look at how it’s made and what uses it has.
Hypertufa is made from various ingredients and was developed to replicate the real Tufa rock. It’s a mixture of Portland cement, peat moss, sand, perlite, vermiculite, and water. There are a number of recipes you can mix up. The most basic recipe is sand (or perlite) mixed together with cement and peat moss.
It’s quite amazing what you can do with hypertufa. It’s great for plant containers, pots, planters, troughs, stepping stones, pedestals, columns, leaves, garden spheres, fake rocks and boulders, sculptures, totems, and so on. A great way to spruce up your garden.
Making hypertufa garden items is simple. In reality, it’s not much different than making a child’s mud-pie. For molds you can use various containers, just look around the house - any kind of plastic bowl or container, a cardboard box, wastebaskets, bowls, vases, plates, and so on.
Once the mixture and molds are prepared, you can start creating. Apply the mixture to the the mold (about 1 inch thick), cover it with plastic bag, seal it and put it in a sunny place for about 3 to 5 days. After that remove from the mold, re-cover with plastic bag and let it cure for about a month or so. And you’re done.
If all this is new to you, start with simple things like a small trough or a stepping stone. First learn the basics and then work your way up. Don’t worry, soon you will be making masterpieces.
Hypertufa is certainly a wonderful way to spruce up your garden. It’s fun, easy and not expensive to make. And it gets your creative juices going.
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