As a little girl, I used to love going down to the creek with my friends. We spent many a day collecting mud from the creek’s edge so we could form scrumptious mud pies and interesting bowls for our make-believe house in the woods.
It was particularly fun for me as I enjoyed showing off my creative side. I have since grown up; I don’t make mud pies anymore, but my passion for being creative is still as strong as ever, especially in the garden. I’m always looking for interesting ways to make use of artistic side. About a year and a half ago, I experimented with hypertufa (hyper-toofa); and I feel just like a kid again. With hypertufa, I can create nearly anything I want and it’s a lot of fun.Hypertufa is the result of blending together varying amounts of Portland cement, sand, peat moss, perlite or vermiculite, and water to form a mud-like mixture that hardens into a material similar to that of stone, only it’s much lighter. This mixture is extremely versatile; you can sculpt it with your hands or mold it using a form. Additionally, you can easily color it or add mosaic pieces and other objects, such as shells, to it. Hypertufa is perfect for making garden ornaments, planting troughs, sculptures, stepping stones, spheres, fake rocks, and many other objects for the garden. You can even make castings of various objects for use as birdbaths. Hypertufa is porous, making it ideal for use as planters. This material will resist cracking in freezing temperatures; and the natural elements, over time, will give it an aged appearance.