Adding a personal touch to your outdoor space can be incredibly rewarding. While store bought garden ornaments are readily available, there's a certain charm in crafting your own. Both concrete and hypertufa, which is a lightweight concrete alternative, offer versatile and budget-friendly options for creating unique and eye-catching garden features.
The Magic of Molding
Both concrete and hypertufa require molds to shape your creations. Upcycled household items like buckets, bowls, and even oven mitts can be used for simple shapes. For more intricate designs, consider purchasing plastic molds online or at craft stores.
Concrete Creations
Concrete is a classic choice for its durability and ability to withstand harsh weather conditions. Here are a couple of beginner-friendly concrete ornament ideas to inspire you:
- Whimsical Mushrooms: Bring a touch of fairy tale magic to your garden with adorable DIY concrete mushrooms. Use a plastic bowl or mold to create the cap shapes and a plastic water bottle to mold the stem. You can also use pre-cut wooden dowels or even old bottles for the stems, inserting them into the wet concrete for the caps to attach later. Let everything solidify overnight and then add paint if you wish.
- Stepping Stones with Personality: Personalize your garden path with decorative stepping stones. Use plastic paver molds or create your own borders with cardboard or wood. Line the mold with a plastic sheet, pour in concrete, and smooth the surface. Get creative! Press seashells, pebbles, or even broken pieces of tile into the wet concrete for a unique touch.
The Lighter Side: Hypertufa
Hypertufa offers a lighter alternative to concrete. A mixture of Portland cement, perlite (a volcanic rock for drainage), sand, and coconut coir, hypertufa allows for more intricate and lightweight garden features. Here are two hypertufa projects to consider:
- Charming Critters: Sculpting adorable animals like ladybugs, hedgehogs, or even a family of turtles can be a fun project for the whole family. Chicken wire can be used to create a base structure, which is then covered in a moistened hypertufa mix. Once sculpted and dried, unleash your inner artist with vibrant paints.
- Classical Bird Baths: A timeless addition to any garden, a hypertufa bird bath can be surprisingly simple to create. Stack two bowls of different sizes, with the smaller bowl inverted on top, to create the basic shape. Cover the gap between the bowls with plastic wrap and secure it with tape. Apply a moistened hypertufa mix over the entire structure, ensuring a good thickness for stability. After drying, remove the bowls and add a flat stone or saucer for the birdbath's base.
Concrete and hypertufa are both versatile and look great. Let your creativity flow and add a piece of your own imagination to your garden décor!
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