Hypertufa Projects

What to Make, and How, With Hypertufa

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As one of the most rustic and rugged crafts you can imagine, hypertufa has taken the gardening world by storm.

There are many recipes used for hypertufa projects, and most work very well to make a rustic hypertufa trough, functional (or plantable) hypertufa bird bath, and many hypertufa pots for your favorite hardy succulents.

This mixture of cement powder, peat moss, sand and perlite is an easy choice for hypertufa projects that pay big dividends in the garden when you plant the result with some great garden plants.

Display them on a rustic bench or potting table for an eclectic grouping, along with some twig planters, terracotta clay pots or other containers.

Fill with succulent plants, top with some lava rock or pebbles to hold the soil in place, and voila! Rustic country garden decor.

Hypertufa projects run the gamut from tiny jewel like pinch pots to troughs and paving stones.

See more about making hypertufa pinch pots; these gemlike planters are so appealing and unique, planted with a grouping of tiny hardy succulents, which thrive in the great drainage and seem to relish the 'tooth' of the rough surface.

Pinch Pots, a handful of hypertufa, molded into a tiny pot ...

Many garden accents can be made with this rustic form of faux rock, and aged with a mixture of sheep manure and buttermilk to promote the formation of moss and lichen; they are indistinguishable from the real thing.

See this page for more ways of how to make hypertufa look old.

Hypertufa is actually derived from the real rock, called ‘tufa’, a soft limestone that many alpine plant specialists have used for years as a planted focal point for succulents and other rock garden plants.

Realizing the potential for making other containers and troughs for their favorite plants, they devised a method and many recipes to make their own hypertufa.

Planted with rare hardy succulents such as Rosularia, Jovibarba and Orostachys, as well as other tiny alpine plants they make special displays for your xeric garden.

See these pages for more information on making your hypertufa project:

How to Make Hypertufa

Hypertufa How To

For my garden, I can’t think of a better style of container material than hypertufa.

Somehow, it goes together with hardy succulent plants like a hand in a glove, and with a match like that, you can’t ever have enough planters, troughs or pinch pots made from hypertufa.

Is Hypertufa on your Mind?

Do you dream in mud? Like to make unique and rustic containers, pots and accents for your garden? Share it!

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...see what other artisans are building with hypertufa...

Chime In
I Love MuD ...... which is my name for clay ....... From red to white, the tinkle of porcelain to the boho earthy look of natural beads and simple shapes …

Stone-like hypertufa trough
Stone-like hypertufa trough is a rustic choice as a succulent container. Hypertufa is easy once you gather the materials from the hardware store. …

Birdbath using rhubarb leaves and painted with acrylic paint

Hyper for Tufa!
Just recently got into hypertufa but I'm really enjoying it! I`m always thinking of new things to do. Every time I go to the thrift shop I'm looking …

Removing the pot for Hypertufa faces
About Hypertufa: I would like to make Hypertufa pot faces. The instuctions regarding removing the pot (black pots from nursery) after mud is harden …

It Isn’t Great But It’s Green
Back when I was in the “old” U.S. Army, just before rocks turned hard, I saw empty Tabasco Sauce bottles used as toothpick holders. My dear wife refuses …

My Take on Hypertufa
A snippet from my white paper: “My Take On Hypertufa” Hypertufa is a man-made, cement based, replacement for, yup here it comes, tufa. Kinda like saying …

Garden Lady Beetle (re-purposed bicycle helmet)
This is how I made the lady beetle from a bicycle helmet, a food strainer, two sections of fireplace screen, some scrap steel rods, and two 1/2 glass marbles. …

Hypertufa Bird Cage Planter
Always one to find rustic salvage wherever I go, now I have my husband looking too - he picked up a really nice bird cage at the recycle center - I use …

Hypertufa Sphere
I've been struggling with this project for quite a while, but finally managed to produce less of a sphere, more of an egg - so it's a dinosaur egg! Now …

White Admiral butterfly admiring the grumpy guy

Hypertufa Grumpy
I made this grumpy looking hypertufa face - the mold was a piece of pipe, but the mix I used was kind of different. I discovered that my native soil …

Hypertufa Rhubarb Leaf
I wanted to make a formed rhubarb leaf in hypertufa - I've seen these used in a water feature, and so I've tried it here. I made up just a small amount …

Hypertufa Faces
I've just got back into making hypertufa after a long time absent - and I'm wondering why I left it so long! I grow lots of Sedum, Sempervivum, Jovibarba …

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