A Hypertufa Afternoon

In preparation for the upcoming LAC Garden Tour, the very creative Ann Quinn came up with the idea of making hypertufa planters to give as thank you gifts to the host gardeners, as well as to sell at the gallery.  What is hypertufa you ask?  It is a combination of Portland cement, perlite or vermiculite and peat moss.  This moist mixture gets molded into forms, decorated and dyed if desired, then after being cured for a couple of days, unmolded and readied for planting.  The resulting planters are lightweight and somewhat porous, making an ideal vessel for outdoor plants. 

A few of us gathered at Ann's house on Saturday and played in the mud! 
 
What a mess, but we donned our rubber gloves, some a little fancier than others, and mixed the ingredients then stuffed our molds and set them aside in garbage bags to cure. 

In the meantime, Ann took us on a little tour of her own garden, which was featured in the LAC Garden Tour a couple of years ago.

 I was so impressed that she had already harvested enough greens from her "hoop" vegetable garden to enjoy a salad.
 
 Crabapple petals rained down on us as we walked through her yard, laughing at her squirrel visitors and her sense of humor on her hand-painted garden post.

Even her front yard is in bloom with tulips and other flowers (I still have snow in mine!)  But the highlight is her homemade Little Library at the edge of the sidewalk, which attracts the neighborhood kids and adults alike.  Take one, leave one and enjoy.  And even the library itself is planted with sedums on the roof.

The hypertufa pots will be ready to unmold soon, so look for them at the gallery during the Garden show and Garden Tour.