I have made a large head in my lawn out of old turves, shaped it into a head, then the OM and I covered the face area with hypertufa. So far it seems to have worked well. But alas I can't add a photo to a reply.

Haven't used it yet, but am interested, as I want to make an alpine trough. Where can you buy the stuff.

You makes it yourself Cinders. It is a mixture of cement, sand and sifted composted bark or peat.
Easiest way to make a trough is to get hold of one of those big black trays they use for plants at Nurseries and coat if with the stuff. I could post the whole method, but it takes too long and too many photos.
I had an article on it published in the Alpine Garden Society Journal a few years back.

I made my own in 1985 to cover a sink and its still good today.

2ndhand & Drc, you could put in a link to a photo or photos, either here on GoY or on another website. :-)

I've toyed with the idea, but never used it - I'd be interested to see your results.

You can see my sink on pages 2 and 40 of my photos Beattie. When doing a Belfast sink the secret is to put it on the sides from the bottom up a bit at a time as it sets then add more above it, that stops the weight dragging it down and off. I used peat, sand and cement I scratched the outside of the sink to help it adhere. You can get glue for this but I didnt.

We do have an old ceramic sink that I'd been toying with the idea of "tufa-ising". We also have an old stainless steel one. Do you think it would work on that too, or do you think the hypertufa would crack off with slight changes in size with temperature in the case of the metal one?

Drc's photos are here (to save hunting)

http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/203875-my-belfast-sink-today-its-had-a-tidy-up/member/drc726
May19 2011

http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/125528-sink-still-looks-ok-despite-the-weather/member/drc726
winter 2009/10

Hi beattie, I'll see what I can do. I'll get the camera out.

Hi Beatie while it would work well on ceramics I dont know about stainless steel? you could look into the glue I mentioned? Its quite fashionable to have stainless steal planters so maybe you could set a trend?

I just posted a pic check out the link

http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/204704-humph-the-hypertufa-head/member/2ndhand

I did see it. are you using grass for the hair 2ndH?

Inspirational! :-)

No i put some liriope along the top, some has taken some not, but the rest is sections of lazula. But again some has taken some hasn't but will rectify that this week hopefully.

:))

I've been wanting to try 'tufa for a while: someone very kindly sent me a recipe, how to make a trough using two cardboard boxes, but it sounds a bit complicated! fix corks to a board, put holes in the bottom box, fit the corks through, put the 'tufa in, then, when it's set, take the board off, leaving the corks in the trough, then drill them out.

I've got some polystyrene fish crates, and also some palstic "mesh" crates that I wanted to try, but how does one ensure the drainage? I could put holes in the bottom and fit corks, but how does one 'tufa the bottom of the crate when it has to stand on the bottom? or at least, it has to stand on bottom, side or even inverted, and the bit that's in contact with the worktop is not going to be 'tufa'd, or it'll set to the worktop and have to be broken/chipped off.

How does one 'tufa a box or sink or whatever, all round?

(signed) Puzzled

ps I'd also like to make blocks to build a mini "dry stone wall" for my landscape garden. can one just cast them in a mould or do the 'tufd need to be applied round anything?

Hallo Fran....how to add drainage...in the outer box pour the mixture to the thickness that you want at the bottom of the box...then cut some wooden dowling or just some bit of wood to this height and press them down to the bottom..I covered them with wide sticky tape to make it easier to take them out when the mixture had hardened...then put the inner box on top of this and weigh it down with a brick or stones so that it doesn´t float up when you add the mixture to the sides... I hope you can understand what I mean. About making blocks to make a stone wall...yesterday I found in the internet...dig uneven holes in a part of the garden where it won´t matter...to the size of the blocks that you want...line the holes with a plastic bin liner then pour the hypertufa mix into those...you will then get unevened shaped stones...I havn´t tried that but it is something that I will try out when the weather gets better. Good luck with your experiments with hypertufa...btw you will see loads of ideas about hypertufa in GoY....or just go to one of the search engines and look for ideas there.

Thanks, Bogi - I did find several hypertufa sites, but it's a case of TMI - got me confused with so much good advice!

The recipe I was given also called for chicken wire to strengthen the eventual trough, wrapped around the inner box with 'tufa rammed down to each side of it.

I wasn't too sure about mixing my own 'tufa - for a total newbie, the more steps there are in the operation, the more chance to make mistakes!

Some of the sites had safety warnings about Portland Cement (wondered why it always had to be that), it seems to be a very fine powder - I'm visually impaired and would have to work within inches to see what I'm doing, so I was worried about inhalation hazard even if I were weraing a dust mask, and it getting into my eyes (I have both goggles and dust masks, which I bought ages ago for something else, but they don't improve my vision when worn over my specs!)

I was querying someone abot the availability of peat moss - never heard of it before, not something one would expect to find locally - and they suggested that if I sieved compost finely, I could use that instead - or that I try ready-mix cement for my first attempts; just add water and stir, sort of thing. I can get that from my local hardware shop, and the chicken wire. *s* I'd like my first goes to *work*, rather than be strictly accurate!

So I could make two-box troughs, maybe (I even bought a pack of wine-bottle corks on eBay!) but it's how to put drainage into a solid mould - plastic or 'styrene box. I can make the holes and put corks in 'em, but how to 'tufa the bottom on the outside? would the corks provide enough support to hold the whole thing off the worktop so it could set?

My "garden" is, unfortunately, paved completely; but I've been saving plastic shapes (the "bubbles" that some items are packed in, with cardboard backing); I could use those as moulds for blocks, though they'd be regular shapes. Or fill a large cat-litter tray (have several of these, for indoor garden bases) with compost and use the bubbles to make impressions, then "randomise" them before pouring.

You've given me a lot to think about, thanks so much for that!!