Re: Hypertufa and green walls

OKAY.....would worry about the freeze aspect....zone 8 here and I still have pots loosing the rim........I saw a wall built from plastic milk crates filled with soil ...the crate was lined w/ spangla moss and then packed w/ potting soil.....then they stacked them 8' high and 8' wide in a metal tank....say 6" deep and the footprint of the wall.....they put a fishtank water pump in the tank and plumbed it to recycle the water to drip tubes on top....added pettersons water soluable food.....the entire wall was planted thru the sides of the crates and after the first 2 months you saw nothing but plants...I had to dig in a bit to figure out that they had used milk crates....if you aren't into raiding the local walmart loading dock or such you could buy those plastic file crates.....Wish I had a camera and photoed it....but you get the drift...

Dee in Eugene, OR. USA
The great zone 8
http://www.oregoncams.com



----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher P. Lindsey" <lindsey@mallorn.com>
To: <perennials@hort.net>
Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2005 5:37 PM
Subject: Hypertufa... Ledges?


Hi everyone,

  I have a dry, sunny section of my yard that I've been using to cram
  every alpine I find into.  Unfortunately, Illinois isn't exactly known
  for its terrain, so I've been losing a lot of stuff because of drainage
  issues.

  What I would like to do is create a rock garden with 'shelves' that
  plants are in; something that looks natural, but allows the plants
  lots of room to grow.

  Rock seems to be pretty expensive (and heavy), so I was considering
  making large flat 'rocks' out of hypertufa (a Portland
  cement/peat moss/perlite mix) and stacking or cementing those
  into place.

  Has anyone used hypertufa for this that can share their experiences?

  I was even thinking that it might be neat to build it very high,
  like 8' up and 10' deep.  I could build a framework using cinder
  blocks, mortar them into place, then put a pond liner over it all
  and start putting the faux stones into place in a type of terrace.
  The area underneath could become a storage shed, but the plants would
  grow on top in a foot of soil or so.

  Comments?

Chris

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