Hi:

Not knowing a thing about adobe other than assumptions, doesn't water deteriorate adobe? Wouldn't it be kind of difficult to use adobe for a planter because of the necessity of watering plants in there? Adobe is made waterproof by the addition of more asphalt into the mix during the making, but the articles I've read say making it "ain't so easy". What part of the country are you in? Curious to see what responses you get on this.

Good luck!!

Hey Amaretto and Club53,

Adobe is susceptible to excessive moisture, but you could put a barrier between the adobe exterior and the planter interior, with good drainage to the outside, to get around that problem.

Adobe is basically clay-heavy dirt, water, and straw and the mortar is usually clay-soil and water (sometimes a small amount of cement is added for strength.) If you have clay soil where you live, chances are you'll be able to find pockets where clay is predominant and that's what you use for the bricks.

Adobe is quite strong and insulates well, but the bricks are very heavy. A planter that would be sitting out, exposed to the elements, probably wouldn't last long, but you could build "adobe-like" tufa bricks that would last longer than straight adobe, by incorporating dirt/potting soil into your tufa mix to give you the look you want. Of course chunks of soil or other organic material near the surface will erode/rot out of the bricks fairly early, but that can enhance the look of weathering.

http://www.papercrete.com/

The above link is to a site that encourages a different kind of alternative building material called papercrete. As you can see from the photos, even though papercrete is made with paper, which wicks water pretty heavily, much of the constructions are exposed to the elements. Of course, paper won't deteriorate quite as quickly as dirt, so it might be worth looking into. There is even a suggestion of creating papercrete bricks that work similarly to adobe in the building process with the added advantage that they are much lighter when dry.

Jo