1. A DIY Guide for the home-gardener
Dave Allen
2002

2. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter
Table of Contents
WHAT IS TUFA? 1
WHAT IS HYPER-TUFA? 1
BEFORE YOU BEGIN 2
WHAT YOU WILL NEED 3
MAKING A PLANTER MOULD 4
MAKING A RETARD MIXTURE 5
THE HYPER–TUFA RECIPE 6
MAKING THE HYPER-TUFA MIXTURE 7
MAKING A HYPER-TUFA PLANTER 8
FINISHING YOUR HYPER-TUFA PLANTER 10
AGING YOUR HYPER-TUFA PLANTER 11
GLOSSARY OF TERMS 12
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3. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter 1
What is tufa?
Tufa exists in nature. It is a type
of rock. It builds up over time as a
deposit from water carrying
chemicals in solution such as
calcium carbonate or silica.
You can see tufa deposited:
• in limestone caves as
stalactites and stalagmites
• around hot or cold water
mineral springs
• as concretions around
volcanic blowholes or geysers
Natural tufa was once carved and made into ornaments for gardens. But,
today most natural sites are protected and tufa cannot be extracted.
What is hyper-tufa?
Hyper-tufa is a homemade replica
of real tufa. It is just as good for
garden ornaments and does not
require destruction of the
environment to produce.
Hyper-tufa is made from Portland
cement. Cement is used to make
ordinary concrete and it comes
ready bagged from the hardware
store.
Sometimes, real tufa contains lots
of foreign and organic matter: bits
of harder rock and stones, twigs,
branches, leaves, and even
insects. These ‘additives’ can also
be mixed in with the cement to
make authentic looking tufa
replica.

4. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter 2
Before you begin
Making hyper-tufa is similar to making concrete. To be successful
at making hyper-tufa garden features you first need to learn some
things about concrete.
Here are some important points you should know about concrete.
• To make concrete, cement, aggregate and water are mixed
in specified amounts to produce ‘wet’ concrete.
• ‘Wet’ concrete is a liquid. It can be poured to fill spaces or
shapes.
• Concrete ‘sets’ (goes hard) over time, not by drying out, but
because crystals grow within the concrete.
• As the crystals grow, they interlock to make the concrete
strong and go hard.
• The speed at which this setting process occurs depends on
the temperature. When it is warm, the setting process is
fast. If it is cold, particularly if it is frosty, the concrete may
not set at all.
• Once the concrete starts to set it will continue to harden for
a month or more, providing it is kept moist.
• Hard aggregate materials (stones, rock chips, etc) added to
concrete will STRENGTHEN the mass.
• Soft aggregate materials (wood, bark, peat, etc) added to
concrete will WEAKEN the mass.
• The finer the aggregate particles then the more cement is
needed. This is so that each particle is covered with
cement.
WARNING
CEMENT IS CAUSTIC
This is not only hard on your hands, but could cause serious injury to
your eyes, or lungs if you breathe it in. Consider wearing safety
glasses, a mask over your mouth and nose, and rubber gloves.
Another consideration is your garden pond, plants, and the fish. Use
caution around a pond, so that bits or chuncks of cement do not fall in.

5. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter 3
What you will need
Now that you know something about concrete, you are almost
ready to make your first hyper-tufa planter.
First, you are going to need some tools to do the job.
Here is a checklist of the things you will need:
! A pair of gloves (thick rubber ! A wire brush or very stiff
is best.) scrubbing brush.
! Large shovel for heavy ! Some bags of cement. (Just
mixing of ingredients. buy 1 or 2 to begin with.)
! Smaller shovel, for example ! Some aggregate. This is
a coal shovel, for putting the the “hard stuff” to give
mix into the mould. strength to the mix. It could
! A wheelbarrow in which to be regular “builders mix”
mix the ingredients. which is a mixture of sand
and shingle; available in bulk
! A short stick about 450 mm
from most hardware or
long for tamping the mix.
buildings supply yards.
! Some plastic sheet (black
! Some peat This is the “soft
garden polythene).
stuff” to give the mixture
! A selection of “moulds” of the some texture. It can be
shape you want to make a bought as bags of coarse
hyper-tufa pot or feature peat at a garden centre or it
(cardboard boxes of various can be any organic material
shapes, plastic pots, plastic from the table below.
rubbish bags, buckets, old
lampshades, or anything that
takes your fancy!).
Some alternatives you could use for:
AGGREGATE PEAT
Any combination of: Any of the following, either alone or
• river gravels in combinations:
• road chips of various sizes • granulated pine bark (fine)
• fancy coloured pebbles • chopped straw, broken twigs
• lime chips • coarse untreated wood shavings
• pumice • chopped flax flower stems and
• scoria chopped flax fronds
• spaghnum moss
You may want to start simply, then • chopped fern trunks and
experiment with different materials to shredded fronds
make your own distinctive aggregate. • bits of coal or coke, charcoal
• pine needles
• chopped bamboo, coconut fibre

6. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter 4
Making a planter mould
Before you start making the hyper-tufa mixture, you first need to
make a mould of the shape and size you would like for your
planter.
You can use almost any container that will form a mould: plastic
bags, cardboard boxes, buckets, etc. As you gain experience with
making planters you can experiment with different containers to
find ones of a shape or size you like the best.
A good, simple way to begin is with ready-made cardboard boxes.
For your first planter find two boxes; one large one and another
slightly smaller so that it will fit inside the larger one with at least
50 mm clearance all around.
An ideal large outside box is the “banana-box.” This is the strong
cardboard box in which bananas are shipped. They are generally
available from supermarkets or fruit shops. These boxes make an
ideal sized planter that is about as large as one person can lift with
difficulty when finished.
For the smaller inside box you will need to find one that gives the
required 50 mm or more clearance all round when placed inside
the banana box.

7. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter 5
Making a retard mixture
Once you have made your planter and the mixture has set, you
will remove the boxing. You then have to scour the surface to
expose the various ingredients and show the texture to its fullest
advantage.
Now this can be a difficult job. If you strip the boxing off too soon
the whole lot collapses, or at the very least cracks appear. Or
else, you leave the boxing on too long and by the time you come
to strip it off, the planter is so hard you will find scouring the
surface very difficult.
What is needed is something that you can paint onto the surfaces
of your boxing, to delay the setting of the hyper-tufa mix at the
surface of your planter, before you make them.
Various commercial products are available. You can get them
from most building supply stores. Alternatively, you can make
your own retard from wallpaper paste using the recipe below.
Paint the inside of your banana box with the retard mixture and
allow it to dry. For greater retarding, paint on a second or third
coat.
Retard Recipe
• 3 or 4 level teaspoons of
cellulose wallpaper powder
• 500 ml water
• ½ cup of sugar

8. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter 6
The Hyper–tufa recipe
Now that you have gathered all the tools together, found the
boxes for a banana -box mould, made up a mixture of retard and
painted the inside of the banana-box, and have all the basic
ingredients on hand, you are ready to start making a hyper–tufa
garden planter.
There are many different recipes for hyper-tufa.
These are the two most commonly used recipes:
Basic Recipe Stronger Mix
• 1 part cement • 2 parts cement
• 1 part aggregate • 1 part aggregate
• 2 parts peat • 2 parts peat
• Water • Water
NOTE: All parts are by ‘volume’ or ‘bulk’ of the ingredient. For example,
you could use a bucket as your bulk measure.
Then, for the basic recipe you could mix:
• 6 buckets of cement
• 6 buckets of aggregate
• 12 buckets of peat
• water

9. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter 7
Making the hyper-tufa mixture
Making hyper-tufa planters is quite hard work. Consider
recruiting a helper before you begin. Start with a small quantity for
your first attempt!
To make the hyper-tufa mixture for your planter using the basic
recipe, follow these three steps:
1. Carefully measure out the
dry ingredients and put
them in the wheelbarrow.
2. Use the large shovel to
thoroughly mix the dry
ingredients.
3. SLOWLY add a small
quantity of water and
continue to mix the
ingredients thoroughly.
Watch carefully the
appearance of the mixture
while adding small
amounts of water and
blend to an even grey
colour.
Pay particular attention to the corners of the wheelbarrow to
make sure all ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
IMPORTANT
Water must be added SLOWLY as you mix the dry ingredients.
Thoroughly blend all ingredients until the mixture looks an even grey
colour.
Be careful not to make the mixture too wet; it should be about the
consistency of thick porridge

10. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter 8
Making a hyper-tufa planter
Now that you have finished mixing the ingredients, you can make
your first hyper-tufa planter.
For the “banana-box planter” follow these five steps:
1. Place the larger cardboard banana-box onto a flat
surface and place bricks or concrete blocks around the
outside of the box to support the box walls.
2. Place one or more 50 mm wooden spacers (to act as
drainage holes in the finished pot) on the base of the
banana-box.
3. Shovel in the hyper-tufa mix to the thickness of the
spacers, ie 50 mm, and pat the mix flat with your hand.

11. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter 9
4. Place the smaller box inside the larger banana-box so
that there is an even gap all around of about 50 mm.
5. Fill the inside box with bricks, rocks, soil etc to hold it in
place, then fill in the gap between the two boxes with the
hyper-tufa mix, tamping down with a piece of stick as you
go.

12. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter 10
Finishing your hyper-tufa planter
Leave the planter to set for about 24 hours; longer in winter.
Peel off the outer banana-box. Because it will be very soggy by
this time, it should peel off easily.
Use a high-pressure garden hose to scour the planter walls to
expose the texture of aggregate and peat. If water scouring is not
effective, you may need to use a stiff brush to scrub the walls.
WARNING
Resist the temptation to remove the inner box and its fill too soon.
Do not try to move the planter; it will break!
Wait for at least a week before you attempt to move the planter.
After a week or more, you can remove the inner box and its fill.
Knock out the 50 mm wooden spacers to provide the necessary
drainage holes for the planter.
Your planter is now ready for planting!
Enjoy!

13. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter 11
Aging your hyper-tufa planter
Hyper-tufa is called a living stone because, in time, a garden of
mosses or lichens will grow on the surface. However, this takes
time because fresh concrete is highly caustic and inhibits the
growth of plants on the surface.
In time, the caustic nature of the concrete will disappear with
normally weathering. The process can be speeded up by treating
the surface with various acids such as sour milk, vinegar, yoghurt,
etc. You do not need to buy these specially but when old stock is
available, use it.
Another technique is to mix up a custard of animal manure and
paint it on the hyper-tufa surface. This will not only provide a
source of nutrients but may also contain spores or seeds of
various plant life. Stir up a sloppy mix in a bucket and slap it on!
If you leave your pot in a shady, damp spot, moss will soon grow
on the surface. However, if you are forever moving the pot from
sun to shade, from damp to dry, then nothing or little will grow.
Remember a rolling stone gathers no moss!

14. Make A Hyper-Tufa Garden Planter 12
Glossary of Terms
A P
aggregate ∙ A mass of inorganic Portland cement ∙ A finely-ground
rock-like materials mixed together powder commonly made of a
in various combinations mixture of limestone and shale;
according to their diameter. used in the making of concrete. It
Commonly reffered to as normally develops its design
'Builder's Mix'. strength in twenty-eight days.
B R
builders mix ∙ A mixture of fine retard ∙ A chemical product which
and coarse aggregates, usually delays the setting of the concrete
containing crushed river-stones mix.
and sand.
S
C
scoria ∙ Refuse or slag remaining
caustic ∙ Capable of corroding, or after a metal has been smelted;
eating away tissues; burning; loose, clinkerlike pieces of
corrosive. volcanic lava.
concrete ∙ A mixture of cement,
fine aggregate, coarse
T
aggregate, and water.
concretions ∙ The act or process tamping ∙ Forcing down or pack
of growing or coming together; closer together by firm repeated
solidifying. blows.
tufa ∙ A chemical sedimentary rock
H composed of calicium carbonate
or of silica, deposited from
Hyper-tufa ∙ a home-made solution in the water of a spring
equivalent of natural tufa rock; or lake.
made from cement, aggregate
and peat.