DIY Mosaic Pots with Ceramic Tiles - Sealing the Tile Grout

(This is the continuation of Part 3)

When the tile grout has dried, the mosaic looks really good. The grout looks a bit chalky though and doesn't blend well with the rest of the glossy mosaic tiles. Not only that, the tile grout powder sometimes has the tendency to stick to your fingers when handling the pot.

And this is where you need to seal the grout with a tile grout sealer. The tile grout sealer penetrates the grout, fills and seals it. It leaves a waterproof surface with a shiny finish.

Sealing the Tile Grout

1. The tile grout sealer is liquid and there's nothing to mix. However, do shake the tile grout sealer well. Spray some of the sealer on the mosaic garden pot. After spraying, spread the liquid around on the tile grout rather than on the tiles with your fingers. You may also use a small paint brush to apply the sealer on the grout.
   
   
   

DIY Mosaic Pots with Ceramic Tiles - Applying the Tile Grout

(This is the continuation of Part 2)

This may, arguably, be the fun part of the DIY Mosaic Garden Pot project, if not the dirtiest part. In this stage, you'll be working on filling in the spaces in between tiles of the mosaic and further securing them to the pot. Other than black, there are other available tile grout colors like gray and white. In a way, tile grouting gives a touch of color syle to the finished mosaic pot.

Applying the Tile Grout

1. Before you add the tile grout, it is best to feel if there is tile adhesive that sticks out with the tiles. This is tile adhesive that may have been pushed out from beneath the tile pieces and dried. If so, use an old screwdriver to scrape off this excess tile adhesive.
   
   Ideally, there should be some space between the tiles for the grout to fill. Edges and points of broken tiles can be extremely sharp so wear garden gloves to protect your hands from injury.
   
   
   

DIY Mosaic Pots with Ceramic Tiles - Applying the Tiles

(This is the continuation of Part 1)

After the initial preparations on the pot and tiles, is the part where you will be filling in the design with the tiles. You will need tile adhesive for attaching the tiles to the garden pot.

In some other countries, this is sometimes called thinset tile mortar. Tile adhesive is cheap and is often bought by the bag. It and can be economical when making a number of mosaic garden pots at a time.

Applying the Tiles

1. Put tile adhesive in a disposable plastic bowl with water. Be sure to follow the mixing ratio as instructed in the package label of the tile adhesive. Wear a protective face mask to avoid breathing the tile adhesive powder.
   
   
   

DIY Mosaic Pots with Ceramic Tiles

I've had initial success with mosaic pots and decided to make another one using some new techniques. I've stored away leftover tile grout and tile grout sealer and was unsure if they were still good enough. I did pack them really well and placed them in a dry and dark storage.

So now, which is a few years later, I decided to make another mosaic garden pot but with a different design. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the tile grout and sealer were still good!

Wrap Around Plant Labels or Ring Tags

In a previous article, I discussed how to make plant label stakes from window blinds. These are easily made and serve their purpose especially with seedlings, young and small plants or "dish garden" plants.

Yet these plant label stakes may not be appropriate for bigger plants. At times, they may not be sufficient in some situations. And this is where wrap around or ring tags may be better used.

Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles - Part 6

(This is the continuation of Part 5)

Completed Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles

Finally, here is the completed product with the new tile grout color. Notice the black grouting inside the garden clay pot. The inside grout is only 3 to 4 inches deep. The rest of the inside of the pot (up to the bottom) is untreated.

Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles - Part 5

(This is the continuation of Part 4)

If you don't like the color of the grout used in the mosaic garden pot, you could still change it, provided the grout has not yet been sealed with a grout sealer or any other sealant.

Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles - Part 4

(This is the continuation of Part 3)

Initially, our son's idea was to use cement or mortar for binding the tiles together to the garden clay pot. This may have been the instruction from the teacher. For this reason, we chose a gray-colored tile grout. Tile grout is cheap and usually comes in 2 kilo bags.

Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles - Part 3

(This is the continuation of Part 2)

4. The smaller the size of the broken pieces, the more number of pieces you will be gluing to the garden clay pot. But the bigger the size of the piece, the more uneven the mosaic surface will become.
   

Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles - Part 2

(This is the continuation of Part 1)

4. Tile Grout
   
   As mentioned before, a contrasting color between tile and grout would be attractive. In general, most ceramic tiles are light colored. So a black colored grout would fit most needs. It just so happened that my son's instruction was to use cement and cement is gray colored. That's the reason we initially chose gray.
   

Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles

This Mosaic Flower Pot project was actually borne out of a class assignment that my son had in school. The class assignment was to come up with a mosaic project using broken tiles.

The base for the mosaic was really optional, but it seemed all the students chose the terracotta or garden clay pot as the base to mount the mosaic design.

So I helped my son start off with the Mosaic Flower Pot project by choosing the tiles and then helping him work on the application of sealant and grout until the mosaic flower pot was completed.

Dispensing Spoon for Garden Chemicals - DIY

At one point in our gardening lives, we eventually may need to use garden chemicals. And there are many.

There are pesticides (insecticides, fungicides), herbicides (weedkillers) and all kinds of fertilizers. These garden chemicals, oftentimes inorganic, are typically in powdered form.

Repair a Rotted Built-in Bamboo Container Trellis - Part 2

(This is the continuation of Part 1)

Here is the procedure to repair a rotted bamboo trellis by removing the damaged parts and then replacing them with steel rods.

Repair a Rotted Built-In Bamboo Container Trellis

After over four years, the built-in bamboo trellis in a container that I built has shown signs of deterioration and damage. I wasn't surprised at which part of the bamboo trellis where the damage had occured. This is the part which gets wet and stays wet often - that part of the trellis that is staked in the pot's soil.

Marking Plant Branches for Identification

In a previous article, I discussed a simple method by which you can make markings on the branches of a bougainvillea plant. That method is a tip to pre-label marcots or air-layers. In that article, marcots were made on two bougainvillea plants growing in a single pot. The reason why pre-labelling is done is to correctly identify the marcots especially when it's time to harvest them.

In this article, I'll discuss an even simpler method to mark the branches of any medium-sized garden plant. "Marking" in this context is for the purpose of being able to identify a particular branch after some time. I'll be using a garlic vine (Mansoa alliacea) instead of a bougainvillea to demonstrate the technique.

Improvise a Wing Nut by Using a Hex Nut

In a previous article, I discussed how to make an improvised wing nut with a hex nut and epoxy. The idea there was that the bigger space n the hex nut hole would allow space for epoxy to bind the smaller nut to the bigger hex nut.

In this article, I'll discuss a way to create the improvised wing nut with just a hex nut and no epoxy. The trick is to find a hex nut with just the right-sized hole.

Improvised Wing Nut Using Big Hex Nut and Epoxy

In a previous article, I mentioned the use of a short aluminum tube and epoxy to improvise a wing nut. The idea is to simply make the holding surface area bigger. To do this, we created a bigger nut with the same hole size.

However, some may find the added step for cutting the aluminum tube a bit too tedious. One way around this time-consuming step is to use a bigger-sized hex nut rather than the aluminum tube. The hex nut's hole should be big enough to provide some space for the epoxy when the small nut is placed inside.

DIY Apple Fruit Picker Pole Rubber Footing

In a recent article, the need for the apple fruit picker pole bottom cap was discussed. The bottom cap was improvised from a bottle cap and worked well in covering the main pole of the fruit picker.

Homemade Bird Trap - Build Plans & Specs DIY

If you ever wanted to trap live birds, here's the best way I know. I say it is the best because it's effective and you don't need to spend on the $50 price (or more) tag on the commercially made models.

It is a multi-catch (or repeating) funnel trap. That means you only need to set it once and it will trap birds continually without you having to reset it.

A variety of traps have been used to control sparrows, but the funnel or half-cone trap has been the most popular and, generally, the most effective. The improvements in the Homemade Bird Trap are the adjustable guard rails and the built-in spikes on the guard rails and funnels.

Homemade Bird Trap - Retrieving Trapped Birds

The nice thing about these traps is you could retrieve trapped birds at or near the feeding/bait stations or take them elsewhere for later retrieval.

Trapped birds can become aggressive and peck your hand. Wear gloves if you're not comfortable holding captured birds.

Gardening gloves like the ones I use below are enough. Gloves easily make your hand larger so you can actually smother a bird, making it easier for you to catch it inside the cage. Make sure though that the glove isn't too bulky and thick that it makes you clumsy, limiting your hand and finger movement.