The Paradise Center hosts hypertufa class

Students at The Paradise Center were hyper-focused on their hypertufa during a class on Feb. 25. Six attendees learned about the gardening technique, which involves succulents in a porous cement pot, from teacher Deb Lemieux. 

On the patio of The Paradise Center, where cement splatters wouldn't matter, Lemieux taught her students how to make a pot. She mixed peat moss, vermiculite and Portland cement in a huge container and offered attendees the opportunity to help mix it up. Sandi Love donned gloves and said it felt like playing in Play-Doh. 

The purpose of the porous pot is to make it easy for water to pool and pass through it. The pots are good for plants that need good drainage, like the succulents Lemieux brought her students, and they can be outside for years with very little maintenance. Lemieux brought desert roses for each student to make the highlight of her pot, along with a few smaller plants to arrange around the small garden. Students nestled plants and decorations like marbles, sea glass, rocks and stones in their pots. Determining when the pot was finished was tough, but students were eventually satisfied with their work. 

"You've got some new friends to take care of, so this is a big responsibility for you," Lemieux said about the plants.