Posted in Projects to Make, Garden Ideas, Stones |
Making Stones
June 8th, 2006
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For years, one of my greatest challenges with my yard decorating options had been finding the “right” stones for the yard projects I wanted to make. About six years ago , I stumbled on the idea of making stones in the sizes and shapes I needed. What a concept! If I could do this - make stones and have them LAST, there would be TONS of projects I could do in exactly the way I wanted to!
But I can be a bit skeptical. *IF* I could make stones that looked like stones, and *IF* I used them in garden projects, would they crumble in the first Spring’s thaw like terra cotta pots can when left out for the winter? Well, let’s give it a go and see. The first step would be to get a “stone recipe”. I kid you not. I went online to find out what the ingredients were for making stones. Here’s the recipe I used:
1 part Portland Cement
1 part sand
2 parts peat moss (big sticks and chunks removed)
water
Start small. Exact measuring not required. I actually used a spade and mixed “spadefuls” - two spadefuls of peat moss, one of cement and one of sand put in my trusty bucket. Oh, yeah. And water. How much water? Enough so that, when all the dry stuff was mixed with the water, you end up with something stiffer than pudding but not as stiff as playdoh. If you add too much water, add more spadefuls of your dry stuff. Again, exact measuring not required for rocks.
So pictures this : A grown woman in a ponytail, sitting on the ground in the front of her house in July with a bucket on the ground between her thighs, a dust mask on, BRIGHT (did I say BRIGHT?) yellow rubber gloves on, mixing cement and other dirts with water, and then pulling a bunch out and slopping it into some shape!
I saw my neighbors watching me out their windows. I was new in the neighborhood, and this was one of my first “public” appearances. Finally, one of my neighbors couldn’t stand it any longer and came over and asked me why a grownup was sitting in the yard making mud pies! I laughed and told him I was making rocks. He said that only God could make rocks. I told him that God shared the recipe with me. He told all the neighbors I was insane.
Oh, and before he left, he told me the rocks would be history by Spring. Something about water getting in (to rock?), freezing and cracking the stones into pebbles. Oh, well. I’ll just make more. But that didn’t happen. Once the stones dried, they were hard like, well, rocks. And they are now celebrating their sixth birthday next month. AND they were moved to a new home a couple years ago, when I moved.
Here’s what they looked like when they were first made. The gray ones are two days old and dry. The darker ones are feshly “cooked”. Click on the pictures to get a closer look.
Oh, yeah. That same neighbor saw me loading rocks into boxes and putting them in the moving van. He opened his mouth to say something, then just shook his head and went to tell the neighbors.
Your Frugal Decorating Diva,
Nancy
Daniel on 20 Oct 2007 at 6:55 am: 1
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article By Design : Making Stones, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
SHERI on 5 Feb 2008 at 7:06 pm: 2
I LOVE THIS IDEA..I ALSO LIKE WORK WITH MORTAR.. I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT MY NEIGHBORS DO THIS SPRING LOL..THEY ALREADY THINK I AM CRAZY..