November Diversion

Finished up the last of my pearlite and vermiculite this month and so moved onto other lightweight aggregates I had lying about the château(I’ve decided to learn French). Hopefully by spring I will be able to plant these troughs up with some Alpines

and add them to some of the others I have.

This trough contains small pieces of lump charcoal, peat moss, sand and Portland cement. The form was a square milk crate and I used ring binder covers around the inner perimeter to keep the mix in. The cement mix doesn’t stick to the plastic covers . (12”x12”x9”/7”x7”x7.5”) 11/16/09I might use it as a reservoir for a fountain I am working on. The water would come out the top of a large hollow ball I have and would trickle off and back into the reservoir. The ball will be held aloft by a 1” copper pipe supplying the water and be covered in flattened glass beads like the kind used in aquariums with grouting between. The water and pump in the center of the trough would be hidden by pea gravel held up by hardware cloth.

When I had run out of pearlite and vermiculite, I cut up some scrap expando foam insulation from scraps I had saved. Why did I save the scraps, were they all from my house, what ever would I do with them? Don’t know, no and something I’m sure. This trough is made of the foam(I honed my kitchen knife skills chopping the foam into little pieces), peat moss, Portland cement and black liquid cement coloring. (11”x9”x9”/8”x5.5”x8”) 11/16/09 I might try to remove the foam pieces by dissolving them. I have a smaller pot made from leftovers of the same mix that I will try it on and see how it looks.

This pot was made from a disposable cake cover and has just pearlite, vermiculite and Portland cement. It is very light for its size. I ground up lump charcoal and then greased and dusted the mold with the charcoal powder, just like baking a cake. I was hoping to get interesting texture and colors. I didn’t. (9.5” diameter x 4”/6” diameter x 2.5” deep) 11/09/09

I had run out of pearlite and vermiculite while making this next trough so it is not as tall as the mold it was made from. In addition, the mix also contains peat moss, brick red powered cement dye and Portland cement. Judging from the weight I think I must have added sand as well. (11”x9”x6”/8”x5.5”x5) 11/09/09This trough and the one made with foam and black dye were made from the same mold and the pink one even though shorter, weighs more then the taller one. The beauty of lightweight aggregates. This one also had a piece of hardware cloth sandwiched in the base.

Autumn 2009 Colors

No foliage trips this year, just some color from around the house. Still working on having something in bloom every month.

Leaves from saplings that sprouted in the yard, I stuck them in a flower box, but next year I may grow them in small pots.

Cyclamen, I missed photographing the flower. I used to hate them when we grew them at the farm, the corm and the stems were always slimy when you had to move the pots around. I really like them now, both for the foliage and the flowers which look like little butterflies floating above the plant.  Heuchera, this one has white flowers in late spring. I have to divide the coral bells next spring as they are taking over, so put in your orders now. One white, one hot pink with green foliage and one soft pink with green foliage.

Campanula SedumNot a sedum.Rose hip Dianthus family   Lavender Stragglers, I have a few blossoms here and there.I didn’t get around to taking pictures of the fall blooming crocus or the roses which were blooming longer than I expected. The dicentra blooms were still looking good until Saturday’s frost.