Basket of Creativity
Concrete basket DIY
What you will Need for Your Concrete Basket
• Plastic bowl
• 3 lengths ½ inch (12 mm) copper pipe
(30 mm long)
• 20 mm PVC pipe (30 mm long)
• Sphagnum moss
• ½ bucket river sand
• ½ bucket cement
• Cooking oil or Spray ‘n Cook
Tools
Sponge, small trowel, builder’s bucket, household gloves
Steps
1. Thinly oil the inside of a plastic bowl. Position the 30 mm length of PVC pipe in the centre of the bottom of the bowl. This will provide a drainage hole for your hanging basket. Spread the moss on the insides of the bowl, all the way to the top.
2. Make a mixture of 1 part river sand, 1 part cement and a little bit of water to form a dry mix. With a gloved hand cover the inside walls of the bowl with this mix, pushing it into the bowl to the same depth as the PVC pipe and covering all of the moss completely. This will create a basket with uniform walls of 30 mm thick. Work the mixture so that there are no gaps and a relatively smooth finish is achieved. Insert the copper tubes 50 mm from the top of the basket, evenly spaced around the rim as they will be the holes through which you thread the rope for hanging. Make sure they don’t get clogged with concrete, and ensure the concrete mix is packed tightly around them. Smooth off the edges of the basket with a damp sponge. Cover or keep damp for 3 days to cure.
3. When the concrete has cured, agitate the plastic bowl until it releases the concrete basket. Remove the PVC pipe used to make the drainage hole. Thread rope through the three copper pipes to hang the basket. Mix up some potting soil and get planting.