You're Coming Along

It’s week 3 of my Hypertufa pot making experiments and I have a very large wheelie bin full of rejects. I’m working on the basis that I will find the right mix but it’s costing me a fortune in peat, cement and perlite. If a room full of monkeys using typewrites will eventually write a classic novel then there’s hope for me yet.

I am thinking that some of the pots will grow moss and algae after painting them with live yogurt. This will give me a worn look.  This effect isn’t for everyone though and I can imagine that there are a lot of green pots and containers on patios that might need a good clean.

If you do get scrubbing then it might be an idea to check paths as well, some of them are getting very slippery in this wet weather. 

Keep off

I’ve been keeping off the soil this month. It’s very wet and walking on it will compact it, not to mention it sticking to my boots. Nature seems to be doing a great job of clearing any leftover greenery in time for the spring plantings. I left the bamboo poles in place this winter and they have proved to be an endless source of entertainment for the dogs. They have mastered the art of pulling them up and ripping them to bits. One day I caught them poking holes in the tunnel as they fought over an old bean pole. It makes a change from the magpies putting holes in the plastic as they attempt to attack reflections of themselves. 

January Planting

The tunnel is holding up well in the winds. I put it in a sheltered spot which has helped.  It’s a bit bunged up with the tufa pots at the moment but what is planted in there is starting to grow. Spinach, peas and lettuce are all doing well and it’s reminding me that we will soon be looking for seeds to sow.  January is time to plant peas, beans aubergines, salad leaf crops and also tomatoes. I’m going to contact Klaus at greenvegetableseeds.com this year and buy seeds that Klaus recommends for the Irish weather. I might as well benefit from his ten years of growing, propagating and research. 

Bulbs

My bulbs are coming up well in the pots I planted up just three weeks ago. They were on special offer and I got loads of daffs, tulips and hyacinths for a few euro. It’s amazing how quickly they are shooting up, I have them in the tunnel too which might help to move them on a bit.

Forcing rhubarb

When I was young I used to venture out at the weekends in summer to a piece of waste ground where I knew rhubarb grey wild. I didn’t go empty handed though as I took with me a small brown paper bag of sugar to dip the stalks into. On its own rhubarb is very bitter so the sugar made it far more palatable. It’s used in medicine as a laxative, but I don’t remember anything about that bit. I realize that I don’t have any in our new garden; I forgot to bring some with me. The plants can be divided easily to produce new plants so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for a fresh supply. I’d miss it in the garden; not only for the stalks but the leaves make an excellent spray to kill unwanted pests. It’s amazing that this poisonous leaf was actually recommended as a food supplement in the First World War -there were a lot of people poisoned! 

The roots are pretty useful as a dye, resembling the colour obtained from walnut husks...just in case you were thinking of dying your own clothes.   The reason I mention rhubarb is that you can force young shoots to grow early under pots. It’s just a case of cutting out the light so they grow quickly looking for light. You can get the stalks all year in supermarkets and these are grown in a similar way to having them under a bucket, but they are forced in massive tunnels with no light in much the same way that mushrooms are grown. It’s said that to keep the stalks sweet and juicy they are harvested by candlelight in Yorkshire tunnels. This might be the case but then again it might be a bit of a romantic tale in much the same way that I remember picking the stalks myself and dipping them into the sugar bag. I probably just ate the sugar after the first dip if truth be known.

The Ringweeder...What's it all about then?

Ringweeder Review

My Ringweeder arrived through the post the other day from Vincent Suozzi in America and it wasn’t long before it was adorning my index finger. The Ringweeder is a simple device invented by Vincent and resembles a two pronged fork that fits like a ring onto your finger to help weeding in small, awkward spaces and I have been eager to give it a test run after since seeing in on the Kickstarter website earlier last year. The Kickstarter project, gives members of the public the ability to invest in new innovations such as this and raised the funding to perfect the design and start production. 

The finished piece is a single, high quality plastic tool which looks to have no weak spots so common in a lot of gardening tools. 

Vincent has spent a lot of time perfecting his new tool and his idea has come a long way since he first fastened a large nail to a steel ring.   The Ringweeder comes in two sizes to suit most hands.

The Test

Finding an area of weeds in my garden to test the device wasn’t difficult!  Having the Ringweeder on my finger was comfortable and it wasn’t long before I was getting stuck in removing even long tap roots. It made me realise that for years I have weeded with my index finger intuitively and worn holes in hundreds of pairs of gloves as well as getting frustrated at not getting the weeds up effectively when I stick my finger into the hard ground. 

The Ringweeder really works. I used it for a good half an hour and it made working in awkward places in between plants very easy. If you were weeding for a long time the gloves supplied come in very useful for reducing the friction between the plastic and the skin.

 

There are a lot of devices put on the markets every year for making life a little easier in the garden, most of them disappear quickly. The Ringweeder seems different. Vincent has actually seen a real gardening problem and found a solution. It was a gardening problem which I didn’t even know existed!

The Ringweeder will also be extremely useful for people with disabilities as no gripping is needed unlike trowels and other hand tools.

I think this simple device has the ability to be a regular ‘must have’ tool in the garden, it doesn’t require fuel to use, needs no maintenance, doesn’t take up any room and can be bought for less than six euro. Check out theringweeder.com

Hypertufa Obsession

Tufa Obsession

Since last week I have spent an obsessively long time attempting to perfect my Hypertufa plant pot mix.  I started off by making the sample pots from just peat, cement and pearlite. All seemed well but when the dried out I found they were lightweight but also too fragile for any real use. They would be good for planting into the ground complete with a young plant but that’s not what I am looking for, I want a pot that can stand up to the rigors of everyday use.  

So it was time to roll my sleeves up and play with different types of mixes. I used less peat, more cement and also added some sand. One review I read about making tufa commented that the best way to get a strong plant pot was to not use peat!  To me that defeated the object of producing tufa pots but I did do one or two without it.  The results were strong but did look like miniature concrete council road bollards, again, not what I was looking for.

One to One

The tunnel is now full of pots of various sizes and consistencies. I am having a bit more success with a 1x1x1x1 mix of sand, peat, pearlite and cement but my biggest problem was getting the set pots out of the molds. I started off by filling a larger pot and then pushing a smaller pot into this to make the recess. All seemed well until the mix set – the pots are stuck in!  The only ones I could get out were the plastic pots as they have a bit of flexibility but not the aesthetic values of the terracotta pots I am also using. 

I therefore had to think of a way to keep the shape of the terracotta pots but have the flexibility of the plastic ones. 

My solution is this. I got some very large pots and filled them with expandable foam then placed a terracotta pot inside this and let it dry.  The resulting hard mold is light and flexible. For good measure I have also made some molds out of sections of cut drainpipe with slits in them fastended by cable ties. These can be pulled open when the mix has set.

It’s still early days with the new methods but I am optimistic I will 

have a product that will look good on the dining table as well as in the garden. Again, I’ll keep you posted.

Hypertufa Images

 My first batch of experimental tufa pots are dry. Made from peat,cement, perlite and vermiculite- the seem strong and durable. In time the moss and algae should cover them. For indoor and outdoor use.

Hypertufa

As my terracotta pot collection is dwindling I thought I’d look around for replacements. It seems that vintage pots are quite hard to come by, especially the ones from Carley’s Bridge potteries in County Wexford. So I thought I could take the matter into my own hands and produce some type of container myself.

 I initially thought the best thing to do was set myself up making clay pots as a bit of a sideline in the quieter moments of the day. After looking into the complexities of the pottery industry I realise that this is also not the easiest thing to do. I’d need to get a heater in the garage, buy clay, a wheel and then to top it off I’d need a kiln, which don’t come cheap.

It all seems like a bit too much trouble to go to for a few plant pots so I thought of a simpler and hopefully less expensive way of producing containers. Making them out of something called hypertufa which is a homemade version of a naturally occurring pourus rock called Tufa.

HYPERTUFA

Hypertufa was developed in the 1930s to replicate the stone troughs that were popular among gardeners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and are still popular to this day. The lightweight stand-ins are a lot easier to transport. Thanks to their porous nature, the pots are ideal for plants needing good drainage such as alpines and cacti.  

If you’ve ever tried to pick up a concrete container you’ll know that they are perfect for keeping the plants upright in a strong wind but not that good for moving around or putting in the post to deliver to customers. 

 

MIXES

I’m using a few different materials and methods to see which one works the best. Initially the pots are formed by using peat, cement and perlite. I am going to use a peat mix and also a peat free mix to see which holds up better seeing as using peat is a bit of a no-no for the environment.  The peat is mixed with either perlite or vermiculite.  Again both of these materials are non renewable volcanic and chemical products so I’ll be looking for more eco friendly alternatives eventually if all goes well. 

METHOD

The peat and perlite are mixed with cement and water is added until it’s like a mud pie. It’s that simple. The difficult bit is getting it to stick into place. I am using a few bowl shaped pots that get a lot wider at the top, a homemade mould of a square and an old milk carton cut in half just for good measure. The other method I’m using is to get a large (ish) terracotta pot, put a bit of the mix in the base and then put in a smaller pot. The sides are then filled by the mix and I’ll leave these to dry for a few days then tip out. I’m using bits of sticks in the bottom to keep a drainage hole and some trusty WD40 sprayed on the inside to hopefully act as a non stick layer so the hypertufa pots slide out.

That’s it. I think the peat will neutralise the lime from the cement and keep the pot ph neutral which will suit most plants. When I get the mix right I’ll try and put a pattern on the sides for the pots. There are different things I could use, dried leaves, stones, shells, wood chip or anything else with a bit of texture. For now though I’ll wait until they are nearly dry then give them a rub with a wire brush.

AMMONIA

One thing I have noticed id when I have made the mixture, it seems to give off ammonia gas. I’m not sure why this is and for once I can’t find the answers online

I’m hoping that the porous nature of these pots will allow moss to grow on them. It’ll give them that aged look. I will try putting some natural yogurt on one of them to see if that really does speed up the “aging process” The other thing I’ll do is make a mix of old beer and some moss then rub it onto the surface.

I’m not sure how strong they are going to be yet because it takes a while for them to set properly, I have speedily dried out a few bits on the radiator and they appear to be very crumbly. I think     I might need to add some sand, it’s very much trial and error.

It looks like there are loads of ways to make these pots and lots of ideas about planting and decorating. I’m going to have so much fun!

 I’ll keep you posted.