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Paint to make a Cardboardbox a Watertight Trough as seen on programme
I remember an episode of Gardeners World, which was probably a couple of years ago now, which I was impressed with becasue they showed you a paint that you could put on the inside of a cardboard box and it would seal it so well it could be used as a water trough. I want to make some of my own planters and troughs and appear to be unable to find information on what this paint was. Can anyone in the forum please tell me? Thanks in advance
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Not sure about that but do remember Geoff Hamilton making troughs and so on from hypertufa and used carboads boxed as the frame-is this it?
http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/make-hypertufa-trough.aspx
A painted cardboard box just wouldn't be strong enough surely?-no matter what paint you used.
I remember something similar to the hypertufa ones above, not a painted box one.
Has anyone tried the hypertufa/concrete ones? I'm just imagining how much mess I might end up getting in if I tried it & how many stages it could go wrong at!
Great idea to make your own however though, large planters can be quite expensive.
Yes, we have some hypertufa ones still going strong after a good few years. We also coated some old sinks with it, that is now coming off and needs replacing, but has lasted at least 10 years if not longer.
They are a bit of a fiidle to make, but not that much, two supported boxes, one inside the other and the cement peat mix between the two - if making a big one some chicken wire in the mixture helps to hold it in place. Good, effective, inexpensive way of making expensive looking troughs.
There are almost certainly some websites available with the proper way of doing it, and equally probably some charity shops have dear Geoff's books in stock - I would not be without mine, my gardening hero was Geoff, still is I suppose
That's good, sounds like it's worth doing then.
The method in the link Sotongeoff posted doesn't use wire or boxes, just some reinforcing fibres & anything as a mould. I wonder which is easier.
Oh so it does now I look again! Silly me.
I went as far as a link halfway down the page called:
Further reading, create a hypertufa container in five easy stages.
Which shows how to use old pots as moulds. I don't know why I followed that link before scrolling all the way down the first page. I seemed logical at the time!
Now I won't know which method to try first!
Well whatever you do is sounds a bit icky-I shall expect a photo of the results
Whoops I should clarify - it was far more recent than Geoff Hamilton, I'm thinking in the last 2-5yrs. It was a paint which meant the box could hold water - so it was a water trough as opposed to a planter.
What I actually want to do is to make my own outer pots for my orchids to stand in that will cope with moisture. I have so many orchids and keep needing bigger and bigger pots, its hard to keep up!
This might be the answer-it involves coating the box with the stuff for waterproofing flat roofs etc
http://www.ehow.com/how_7805328_make-cardboard-weatherproof.html
Yes, there was something on Ideal World or similar commercial TV channel recently which showed a waterproofing paint used to make a cardboard box hold water. I don't think they were proposing you use it to make planting boxes though - it was just a demonstration of the paint.