One year ago, my wife and I participated in a workshop on trough gardening, a subject which neither of us knew much about. The main activity of that workshop was to build a trough out of chicken wire and a specialized cement known as “super tufa.”

We were instructed to bring a piece of plywood slightly larger than the trough we would build and a sheet of plastic big enough to cover the trough. Rubber gloves and old clothes were also suggested. The rest was pure fun.

Gail and I both chose to make oblong troughs shaped like halves of watermelon split lengthwise, only considerably larger. The first step was to make a form using chicken wire that approximated the size and shape of our troughs. Tin snips and a little ingenuity soon produced the desired results, and we were ready to make the inner mold.

Wet sand was slapped on the plywood base and packed by hand, utilizing skills learned long ago. Periodically we checked the shape of our sand pile against the shape of the form, until the former conformed to the latter. Then it was on to the plastering.

Super tufa is a mixture of two parts peat, two parts perlite and one part Portland cement with enough water to make the mix workable without slumping. The name refers to a particular type of porous rock, tufa, favored by some alpine gardening purists who carve their troughs from this difficult-to-obtain mineral.

We donned rubber gloves and carefully worked the cement mixture through the wire form and pressed it against the sand inner mold. Once the basic form had been created and the chicken wire was no longer visible, we added artistic dabs of super tufa here and there. I put short legs on my trough using cylinders of chicken wire for forms. The effect was that of an inverted pig which seemed to delight the other workshop participants. Drain holes were poked in the cement after it had begun to set.

Curing is all important to the success of any cement structure, so we carefully covered our troughs in plastic and were instruced not to uncover them for a week or so. The final step, when the plastic was removed, was to use a stiff wire brush to scuff the surface, creating a natural appearance. Brushing in only one direction gives a stratified look, much like real tufa.

Gail planted her trough with a small species of Cyclamen, a rock jasmine (Androsace lanuginosa), a dwarf Iberis, and a Sedum with very shiny droplet-shaped leaves. The effect must have pleased Mother Nature greatly since she quickly sowed moss spores around the edges and deposited one sport of sensitive fern in the background. Within six months the trough looked like a small piece of the rock garden primeval.

My trough started out looking good enough to use in the Bangor Garden Show where it attracted a good deal of attention from judges and showgoers. A small Lewisia bloomed obligingly for the show, juxtoposed against a tiny barrel cactus. A particularly nasty sedum has since overgrown the trough, and I am contemplating a horticultural reformation in spring.

Michael Zuck of Bangor is a horticulturist and the NEWS garden columnist. Send inquiries to him at 2106 Essex St., Bangor, Maine 04401.