'Crocus' troughs
James Waddick (Wed, 05 Feb 2003 07:01:54 PST)

Dear Cathy;
There are volumes of info on this so I'll just give you a few
tips that worked for me.
Do this with a friend-another procrastinator helps. It is
great fun together.
Do not wait. I procrastinated for years. Then I made about 5
or 6 troughs in 2 weeks and plan on more this year.
Keep the mix simple and BE SURE to add a coloring agent (We
got ours at the local Lowe's store.) We like the terracotta color
additive.

Forms; We both started simple by piling the hypertufa mix on the
outside of stainless steel bowls (large kitchen mixing bowls for a
fast round trough) and an old oval turkey baking pan

We then tried piling the hypertufa an the inside of larger
kitchen molds and liked this look much better. These included plastic
storage bins, old enameled pans etc.

Eventually we made some foam forms and these do look really
good if you want classic rectangular toughs. We only used outer
forms, no inner walls. That is we made forms for the outside
dimensions and filled the interior surface. We did not add an inner
form to keep the walls straight and smooth as some books suggest. We
like the irregularity. In fact this irregularity is neat and can
certainly be encouraged.

We found it was fairly easy, but time consuming. Starting in
mid morning we could each make a trough or two. The next day we would
unmold and make a second set of troughs in a slightly longer time. We
settled down to unmolding and cleaning and shaping one trough and
making a second trough in one 'day' (well 3 or 4 hours)
Wear rubber/plastic gloves and prepare to get messy, dirty
etc. Use lots of tarps etc.

Please read up on the details and then just do it. The first
was the hardest to do, but then it got routine and easy encouraging
us to try more.

We bought some cheap close-out hemispherical plastic lamp
shades - pretty tacky, but when filled with colored hypertufa and
pushed together the resulting "stone" sphere looks great in the
garden. These sell in garden centers for $30 and took some left over
hypertufa, minutes and cost almost nothing.

Smaller troughs made in an old enamel dishpan are really cute
even for annuals and such.

John Lonsdale- these are all new and I haven't tried ANY
Crocus (yet!) - or any bulbs even. Can you suggest the bulbs
(including Crocus) that really do the best?

BTW after less than a year, I did plant a couple small Viola
pedata in one and they are looking far healthier than anyplace else
in garden. And sempervivum and small sedum seem to love troughs

Sorry I went on, but really Cathy just get a few friends
together for a weekend and have fun.

Jim W.

--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
E-fax 419-781-8594

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