Gardening 101 - "Build Your Own Trough"

Presented by Mark Weathington, Director, and Blake Wentley, Education Assistant, JC Raulston Arboretum on July 8, 2024.
As temperatures soar through our North Carolina summers, it's best to find gardening tasks that can be accomplished from a shady location, or better yet an air conditioned workshop. Adding to your garden's infrastructure by building a trough is a great way to add new habitat for plants while supplementing the vertical interest in your garden and adding an element of rustic tranquility to your garden's design. Join us for this edition of Gardening 101 as our Director, Mark Weathington, shows us a fun and easy gardening project for those days where it's just too hot to pull weeds!
This program was originally presented live online. Tune into our midweek program live on Zoom, Wednesdays at 3:00pm eastern time. Here's the link: jcra.ncsu.edu/...

[@lyndacampbell827]

Excellent Video. Thanks Mark!

[@beckyscheller9358]

Love this. I have done this using a old basket for added texture on the outside.

[@ianewalker]

I have always wondered how to make these! How about a video on how those beautiful giant concrete (or plaster?) leaf castings around the arboretum are made?

[@carolynl2282]

I can’t wait to make this. I was wondering if you can use a styrofoam fish box (used to transport live fish to pet stores) as a core to make large troughs lighter. You would need to pat the concrete mix around all sides of the box…maybe cutting the styrofoam corners off would make the corners stronger. Also,would chicken wire be a good reinforcement? Just a few thoughts.

[@denisemalueg5165]

Yeah! I’ll give this a try. Two questions: should you have put plastic over those bricks before smushing on the hypertufa mix? Did you make the square planter behind you in the video?

[@ellainawwinthrop8991]

How was diagonal lines made in this one?

[@angelacross2216]

1/1/1 even I can remember that.

[@careyjohnston4176]

Mark I have seen people immerse hypertufa in water after a 24 to 48 hour set time and leave it for weeks or months. What do you say about this practice. Also can you use permatil instead of another medium. Thank you so very much for your consideration of plants you like or describe in talks .