Two Succulents, One Bowl

Orostachys furusei

Sedum spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco'

Taller Quatrefoil

I added 2" in height to the quatrefoil trough mold from this spring, so that it's 9" tall now.  Above is the first cast.  It's a subtle difference but I like it a lot.  

Quatrefoil with rectangular Wilson trough above.  Both are only a month old; the gray color will turn a lighter brown-gray as they age.

Above, in the previous incarnation, with the same rectangular trough for comparison.

It's the small things, ya know?

Figs

A few years ago a friend gave me a potted fig cutting about 2' high with the regular story, saying it was from on old Italian neighbor, but that she didn't have enough sun to grow it.  I reluctantly took it, knowing I had no room in the yard for it.  I know how much attention people lavish on their fig trees in this area, and, frankly, growing food is not my thing.  I put it in the largest plastic pot I had on hand and dutifully kept it in the cold basement all winter and the hot deck all summer.

Once it finally bore fruit in a couple of years, I was surprised that it was a yellow fig, not the common brown one that I had assumed.  The tree has gotten larger and larger in its plastic pot and the branches sprawl lazily out from the main trunk.  This spring when I carried it out of the basement I was surprised to see it set with the beginnings of a breba crop.  These few bonus figs are weeks ahead of the regular crop of fruit.  I had the first, warm jammy fig this morning before anyone else was awake.  

This tree is worth the hassle. 

Two Highlights of a Hot Weekend

One of the delospermas blooming in a hypertufa bowl, with the bladder seed heads of silene uniflora 'compacta' visible behind it.

Two large rectangular troughs that I cast yesterday morning when it was still relatively cool.  I took them out of the molds and scrubbed them with a wire brush this morning, when it was NOT so cool anymore.  I'll seal them in plastic for 4 weeks until they're fully cured and ready for delivery.

New Hypertufa

A friend in my NARGS chapter recently asked me to make a couple new planters for him.  We discussed many designs when he stopped by but settled on two that I don't make often.  The first is an oval bowl.  For this I made an inner mold of laminated layers of 2" rigid foam glued together and shaped with a utility knife.  The hypertufa bowl was cast upside down, packed onto the dome-shaped mold, with gravity and diligent packing with my hands helping to make it tight and uniform.  Keeping the hypertufa mix on the dry side is very important as if it's too wet it will just slide off the mold.

Before casting I wrapped the mold in shrink-wrap as a sort of release agent.  It also gives me something to pull on once the bowl's cured and I need to remove the core.

The finished trough is pretty good-sized at 24 x 20 x 10 1/2" high.  Those are my boots for scale.  

My friend admired an organic looking planter on my deck and asked if I could make a similar one. I probably made that planter about 6 years ago, with cardboard boxes as a mold.  Almost all of my molds are rigid foam or plywood now, and it's been a while since I've done one with cardboard boxes.  Above is the mold after I cast my friend's new trough.  The outer carton has the flaps folded down, with shrink-wrap around it for safety.  The inner carton is filled with sand.  The best and worst part of using cartons for a mold is that they begin to fail as you cast the trough.

The trough was thicker than normal, since the outer carton started sagging outward almost immediately.

I trimmed the inside walls with the sharp end of my brick hammer and then scrubbed the outside with a wire brush.  It's 21 x 21 x 14" high.  It definitely has that organic feeling that my friend wanted.

Now they need a few weeks to cure.