Jonna showed a photo of a carved out rock planter in another thread. I really like the look of the planter but I have not seen them here.....and if I did see them here I am sure I could not afford to buy one....
I made the following planter a few years ago out of a hypertufa mix. Many different mixes are available if you Google hypertufa mix. If you want to make your planter very sturdy you can add polypropylene (Fiberadd) a mono-filament fiber that is carried by masonry stores. Some the fiber will show when it dries but a propane torch melts it off. I used a vinyl dish washing container as the mold but nearly any type of container, even a cardboard box or free style could be used. Some people just dig a hole in the ground in the shape and depth they want and use the hole as the mold. Once my hypertufa mix in the mold was dry enough I popped it out of the greased mold and used a wire brush on it to give it the texture surface I wanted. If I do it again I think I will use more peat in the mix and also experiment with some earth-tone dyes that are used to color a concrete mix. The finished product is rather porous and great for succulents.
I recall seeing a photo of a garden with a mill stone and I thought it looked pretty cool in the garden. While landscaping our front yard several years ago that image of the mill stone was still in my mind. Purchasing a genuine mill stone was out of the question due to the cost. I used my hypertufa knowledge and made my own millstone. I purchased some aluminum roof flashing and clamped it into a circle.
I then used aluminum tape (duct tape would do) to secure the flashing together so it would not pull apart, taping both the inside and outside seams where the foil overlapped.
I then moved the form out to the patio and placed it on top of a garbage bag. I greased the inside of the mold with Crisco and placed bricks and concrete blocks around the outside of the mold in order to keep it in the shape I wanted and to lessen the chance of the tape not holding the seams of the mold together. I took a 4x4 piece of wood, greased it up and placed it in the middle of my form to make the hole I wanted.
I placed a couple of weighted boards on top of the form to keep it in place. After the mix had hardened I had a dickens of a time removing the wood 4X4 because even with the grease it still soaked up moisture and expanded. Thus I would suggest either wrapping the wood in vinyl or plastic and sealing it or shaving it so that it tapers toward one end so that it can easily be punched out later once the hypertufa cures. Once the 4x4 was in place I filled the mold with a hypertufa mix.
Once cured enough for removal from the mold I cut the seaming tape, pulled the aluminum flashing away from the mill stone and took a wire brush to it and then placed it in my garden.
I have a long concrete slab on the side of the garage that is mostly used for parking our cars off the street when we are on vacation so as not to get a $25 dollar street sweeping ticket on each car every week of our absence. Other than that it is hardly ever used. Dirt to plant in is at a premium for many of us SoCal gardeners. A few years ago I ran out of places to stick my plants and I thought that our concrete slab was going to waste most of the time. I realized that if I were to cut some holes in it for plants I would still have plenty of room for parking the cars off the street when on vacation. I attached a diamond coated masonry wheel ($10 or so) to my angle grinder to make my cuts in the concrete. Angle grinders are a versatile tool that can grind metal, cut tile, concrete, bricks, pavers or stucco; rout out mortar and they can sand, polish or sharpen...depending upon the attachment used. And they only cost something like $15 at Harbor Freight. If you don't already have one, get one. They usually only come with the grinding wheel. First I chalked out where I wanted to cut the concrete. As you can perhaps see I didn't make it perfectly even......measure twice, cut once....
Wear a good dust mask and goggles and slowly make your cuts. No water is used with these grinders. Next I cut an X in the center of the concrete. the purpose of the X is to give you a starting point in busting through the concrete with a sledge hammer.
Then came the hard work. It took roughly 10-15 minutes of constant pounding with a sledge hammer to eventually punch a hole through the concrete. Thereafter it went quicker and the entire job of busting out the concrete for this size opening took about 45 minutes.....and several glasses of water to quench my thirst....
In this particular opening I planted a strawberry guava. The plant is now two years old and it is at least twice the size as shown here.....and it is producing fruit as I speak...
Thus far I have cut three holes in the concrete slab. The other two holes are planted with a kiwi and a michelia champaca.
