How To Make Your Own Garden Stones

 

This Spring my husband and I have been spending a lot of time in our backyard. After living in a townhouse complex for 8 years we are truly embracing the joy of having a space that we can call our own. The previous owners of our home didn’t have much in the yard for landscaping so we were able to start fresh.

So far we have put in a raised garden bed for vegetables and a perennial flower garden. After finishing our flower garden I was looking for something to add a little bit more of a personal touch.

I deceided that I was going to make personalized garden stones, one for each of my sons with their hand prints and the year so we could remember them during our first year in our new home. This whole project cost me around $10 and I was able to make a total of 12 stones (I used these as Mother’s Day gifts) with some Quickrete to spare.

Here is a quick run down of how we made our garden stones:

What you will need: 

• Foil round cake pans
• Glass gems
• Quickrete (or any type of quick set cement)
• Bucket
• Stick to stir
• A small trowel
• Gloves

Instructions: 

Gather supplies and set up outside or somewhere you don’t mind getting a little dirty, we are talking about cement.

Mix your cement, because this is the quick set cement that will set within 20 minutes you want to make sure to only mix what you are going to need.

Pour cement into foil cake pans and smooth out with your trowel.

With gloved hands press your child’s hand down in the cement to create a hand print.

Have kids place glass gems around the edges to create their own design.

Wait for the cement to hard, remove from foil cake pan and place in the garden.

I left my stones inside for 24 hours, removed from the pans and then painted the kids names and the dates on them and sealed before I put them in the garden.