Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Page 12
Simulated stone planters give gardens old-world charm
Those who like the look
of old stone planters and
troughs in classic English
gardens can make delightful
facsimiles using “hypertufa,”
a simulated-stone material
that can be mixed at home.
Ingredients vary, but are
easily found and can be made
into garden containers, bird-
baths and landscape accents
that look like stone, but are
much lighter and inexpensive.
Often, a mixture of Port-
land cement, coconut fiber
and perlite is used, according
to Linda McMahan, staff
chairman and consumer horti-
culturist for the Yamhill
County office of Oregon State
University Extension Service.
“The material itself is
easy to work with, sort of like
cookie dough,” McMahan
said. “It is also amazingly
inexpensive, and the possi-
bilities for shapes, sizes and
colors almost endless. It’s like
making mud pies for adults.
It’s fun, low-key, great for
patio parties; messy ones in
jeans that is.”
Working with hypertufa
is easy for the beginner,
McMahan said. “If you make
a mistake, so what? Just start
over. It's about as expensive
as spilt milk."“
Hypertufa containers
work well for rock gardens,
succulents, alpine plants and
other “fussy” little plants,
McMahan said. “I have
troughs all over my garden --
on the front stoop, on the
back patio, next to the small
pond, in the middle of a
flower bed. You can stack
them and raise plants to vari-
ous levels.”
European gardeners have
used stone troughs and other
obsolete cement for planters
for centuries, McMahan said.
The stone containers made
such a splendid addition to
ornamental gardens, they
soon became a “must have”
in the European countryside.
After a time, the stone
cast-offs became rare, so folks
turned to tufa rock, a soft vol-
canic porous rock easily hol-
lowed and carved. By the
1930s and ‘40s, tufa rocks
became less available and
expensive. Creative gardeners
decided to make their own
“tufa,” calling it hypertufa.
“As you have guessed,
there are many recipes, all
with plusses and minuses,”
McMahan said. “When I mix,
I add water just until it sticks
together when squeezed and
begins to glisten.”
Hypertufa planters made
with sand can easily stand up
for 20 years, she said. “The
light-weight ones made with
perlite aren’t quite as durable,
but can last about 10 years if
they are not abused. Plant
roots can make their way into
crevices and quicken the
breakdown process.”
A caution: hypertufa
objects can break with rough
use. “Don’t drop one,”
warned McMahan. “Not only
will it break; it might break
your foot.”
Hypertufa recipe:
Ingredients: (relative
volumes are given).
3 parts coir (coconut fi-
ber)
2 parts Portland Cement
type I-II
3 parts perlite
You can find the coconut
fiber and perlite at garden
centers, and Portland Cement
at construction or lumber
stores. Portland Cement
OSU has tips for healthy tomatoes
The taste and fragrance
of home-grown tomatoes
make them one of the most
popular plants to tend in
home gardens. But summer
heat can bring problems.
The Oregon State Uni-
versity Extension Service
Master Gardener Program
tracks the most common to-
mato problems and offers
advice on what to do.
Late and early blight:
“These are fungal dis-
eases,” said Barb Fick, OSU
Extension horticulturist in
Benton County. “It’s usually
caused by warm wet weather.
Look for irregular, greenish
water-soaked spots on lower
leaves and stems and pick
them off.”
Water your tomatoes
around the base and not from
above to avoid prolonged
wetting of leaves. Make sure
to give plants space. Stake
and prune to keep air circulat-
ing and plants dry.
Blossom drop: Dry soil
and dry winds can cause blos-
soms to fall off the plant, but
a sudden cold spell, heavy
rains or too much nitrogen
can also be the problem. Usu-
ally not all blossoms will fall
off, and another set of flowers
will appear.
Blossom end rot: The
end of the fruit furthest away
from the stem turns black,
usually caused by irregular
watering and calcium defi-
ciency. Water deeply and
regularly. Add lime to soil in
the fall to increase the cal-
cium level for next year’s
crop. Blossom end rot is most
common in western Oregon.
*Leaf rolling: This prob-
lem is most often the result of
heavy pruning or root injury.
Plants may lose leaves, but
will recover.
For Master Gardener
help, go online to your county
Extension office at: http://
extension.oregonstate.edu/
locations.php.
Advocacy Services
Barber
comes only in 94-pound
sacks; will not keep; and be-
comes hard quickly. Plan to
make a lot of hypertufa pots,
or have a party.
Measure the ingredients
by volume with a bucket. Put
on gloves and mix by hand in
a cement tray (plastic and
inexpensive), wheelbarrow or
other large container. Add
water gradually and mix with
ingredients until it is stiff and
holds together, about like
cookie dough or cottage
cheese.
Mold the wet hypertufa
with your hands into a plas-
tic-lined cardboard box or
other container, making the
bottom about 2 to 3 inches
thick. The walls of the hyper-
tufa container should be at
least 3 inches deep. Punch
two drain holes in the bottom
with your finger or a tool.
When finished, clean your
mixing tray immediately with
a garden hose.
Leave outdoors to dry,
about three or five days, until
firm. Then remove your hy-
pertufa planter from the box
and plastic. Smooth, carve or
shape to your satisfaction
using a garden trowel, wire
brush or other metal tool. For
a smoother finish, moisten the
hypertufa and then coat the
outside with dry Portland
Cement. You can plant in
containers approximately a
week after they are made.
“There are as many
methods and recipes as there
are people making planters,”
McMahan said. “Sometimes I
use sand instead of perlite,
especially for small contain-
ers, because sand makes the
pot heavier. Also, you can
substitute finely ground peat
moss for the coconut fiber,
although coconut fiber is a
better alternative from an
environmental perspective.”
Deer-repellant plants defend yard
Learning to co-exist with
deer could be easier than ban-
ishing them from your prop-
erty entirely.
But waking in the morn-
ing to find tender, newly
planted tomatoes with their
tops bitten off can make even
the most patient gardener
unhappy.
A tall fence is the best
insurance against deer dam-
age; however, landscaping
with deer-resistant plants can
be an esthetically pleasing
alternative, according to
Nancy Allen, faculty member
in the Fisheries & Wildlife
Dept. at Oregon State Univer-
sity at Corvallis.
The worst deer damage
usually occurs from late fall
through early spring. Oregon
mule deer and black-tailed
deer each eat up to 7 pounds a
day, from a selection of more
than 500 types of plants. In
the winter, they eat almost
anything, including lichen,
twigs, bark and evergreen
boughs. Acorns are an impor-
tant food in the fall.
“A plant can be deer-
resistant, but not necessarily
‘deer-proof,’ for several rea-
sons,” Allen said. “Plants that
in another OSU Extension
publication (EC 1557), Re-
duce Deer Damage in Your
Yard.
“Deer have an acute
sense of smell to locate food,
and it can be used to our ad-
vantage,” Allen said. “Certain
scents can deter deer if used
properly and reapplied often.”
Commercial products are
available, or there are home
remedies such as hanging
deodorant soap bars from
trees or placing them around
gardens. Pepper spray can be
an effective repellent, as well
as the odor of human hair,
which can be rolled in balls
and hung in trees or on
stakes.
A dog can be an effective
deterrent, as well, if allowed
to run loose in a fenced yard,
night and day, because deer
feed at night. Fencing indi-
vidual plants with black plas-
tic mesh can protect them
until they become established.
Support the mesh with stakes
or poles that provide plenty of
space around the plant.
If you change your deter-
rent tactics throughout the
year, deer will not become
accustomed to them.
deter deer have a strong scent,
thick or leathery leaves or
fuzzy or spiny textures. Many
are poisonous, some at all
times, and others only at cer-
tain growth stages.”
An OSU Extension pub-
lication (EC 1440), Deer-
Resistant Ornamental Plants,
lists deer-resistant plants as a
general guide. The list of
some 100 plants and their
climate zones includes peren-
nials as common as iris and
columbine; shrubs such as
jasmine and lilac; trees, in-
cluding edible fig and Scots
pine; and vines and ground
covers, including poisonous
nightshade.
“Deer sometimes will
browse the plants listed and
other times avoid plants not
listed,” Allen cautioned.
Many gardeners have
found that fences of black
plastic mesh keep deer out of
gardens if they are at least 8
feet tall and supported with
metal or wooden stakes. Five-
foot fences will work if they
are solid; deer usually won't
jump when they can’t see the
other side.
Examples of other fences
and more details are available
Building Trades (cont.)
Fencing
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