How to Build Outdoor Planters

Container gardens are a modern take on traditional landscaping. By planting flowers in planters, you can easily move the blooms to new locations and avoid many garden pests, diseases and weed infestations. Large containers will give a patio or porch a big "wow" factor, but oversize planters are expensive and heavy to move. By making your own planters from hypertufa, a porous cement developed by European gardeners, you will save money and benefit from the easy portability of the planter.

Wheelbarrow
20 lbs. Portland cement
20 lbs. peat moss
20 lbs. vermiculite
Rubber gloves
Trowel
Wicker laundry basket
Garden pruners

Instructions

- 1
  Dump 20 lbs. each of Portland cement, peat moss and vermiculite into a wheelbarrow. Put on rubber gloves and thoroughly mix together the dry cement, peat moss and vermiculite with a trowel.
- 2
  Add water, 4 cups at a time, and mix with the trowel until the hypertufa mixture is the consistency of pudding.
- 3
  Trowel the hypertufa mixture into a wicker laundry basket, creating 2-inch-thick walls and pressing the damp hypertufa into the wicker to make an impression. Create a 1-inch-diameter hole for drainage in the bottom of the basket with your finger.
- 4
  Dry the hypertufa planter for three days. Cut the wicker basket away from the completed planter with garden pruners.

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