Subject: homemade rocks

From: Steven Shaw <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 08 Apr 1996 19:48:06 -0700

Several years ago in a gardening magazine I read a recipe for making 
artifical rocks out of peat moss, or vermiculite and cement, etc.  Does 
anyone know the recipe for this or where I can find it?		
-- 
Steven Shaw               | I hear and I forget, I see and I remember,
[email-masked]  | I do and I understand.
                          |                  -- Chinese proverb

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: 9 Apr 1996 12:17:25 GMT

>anyone know the recipe for this or where I can find it?		

Organic Gardening had a recipe in their March issue. The process is called 
hypertufa and it includes cement sand and peat moss.  This article 
included instuctions on how to make containers but I'm sure with a little 
inginuity one could make a rock. Recipe is this.  2 parts cement with 3 
parts sand and 3 parts sifted peat moss.  Wearing rubber gloves, mix small 
amount of water slowly and just enough to make the mixture easy to work 
with.  I highly recommend that  you pick up this issue to get all the ins 
and outs!  Shelley

---

From: Ron Moir <[email-masked]>
Date: 10 Apr 1996 00:22:21 GMT

Hi Steven,

There is an article in Gardening Life Spring 1996, the premier edition, 
published by Canadian House and Home mag pages 64 to 67 on how to build a 
garden trough. You build the trough using cement, peat moss and perilite. 
This might be the "recipe" that you need. Hope this helps. 

Donna <[email-masked]>

---

From: beau <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 08:37:17 -0700

Ron Moir wrote:
> Donna <[email-masked]>And even better mix is 1 part cement 1 part peat moss and 3 parts 
vermiculite, add some coloring agent. I have used this mix for years, it 
is easy to work, durable and strong, and is still soft enough when cured 
to carve it or texture the surface with a wire brush. 
>From  Beau at [email-masked]

---

From: David Mandel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 11:24:38 -0700

In response to the below recommendation: ANYthing that uses peat moss is
environmentally stupid, to put it mildly.  It takes at least 10,000 years
for a peat-producing wetland to reach just the right conditions of
high-acid, cold-temperature water to produce sphagnum moss, the material
which, over many, many centuries, compacts into layers of what we
call peat.  Once disturbed (whether for peat mining or powerline
right-of-ways), such fragile ecosystems are largely trashed for good.
There is NO known method for restoring or creating a peat-producing
wetland.  They are disappearing at a phenomenal rate, except where humans
(so far) haven't gone to mine them -- such as Canadian subarctic tundra.

	Find something sustainable to use for your concrete mix or soil
amendments.  There's plenty out there, most of it available through local
nurseries or quarry product companies.  What you do to your world today,
your children and grandchildren will have to live with.  This isn't
tree-hugging, it's avoiding suicide!

				Dave Mandel
				landscape contractor,
				master of landscape architecture candidate

> An even better mix is 1 part cement 1 part peat moss and 3 parts