Leaf Casting Water Feature

This is the most awesome water feature I have seen yet!

The leaf castings are made of concrete . . . there is no tutorial to go with this photo, but it should not be too difficult to figure out how the water feature part of it could work.

Use the photo as inspiration, as well as some of the websites listed below.  These concrete leaves are used for stepping stones in the garden, bird bath, decorations and water features.  You can also do a search on Pinterest for leaf castings for additional inspiration.

Here are some articles and tutorials on making concrete leaves . . .

Concrete Leaves for Garden or Fountain

How to Make a Concrete Leaf Casting

Casting Nature

Concrete Casting How To

Make A Concrete Leaf

How to Make Concrete Garden Fountain with Rhubarb Leaves

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DIY Hypertufa Plant Containers

Spring's arrival brought ideas for all types of garden projects.  

Hypertufa containers is something I never experimented with, even though I loved my concrete DIY projects.  Since my emphasis is going to be container gardening this year, this is a project I am going to try.

Click here if you would also like to get inspired to make your own containers . . . The Empress of Dirt will guide the way for you!

Click here for another article from The World of Succulents on hypertufa containers.

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DIY Concrete Garden Hands

Love this unusual concrete garden hands container!  

I'm always looking for unique containers I can make myself, especially those made with concrete :)

Click here for the tutorial.

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DIY Concrete Countertop For Your Outdoor Kitchen

Concrete is a durable and inexpensive solution to your outdoor kitchen countertops.

I've worked with concrete on many outdoor projects for decades and many of them are still intact and functional.  In addition, concrete was fun to work with and once I started, it was so addicting that I kept thinking of new projects to work on.  Try it!

Click here for an excellent article on creating a concrete countertop for your outdoor kitchen.

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Discover Hypertufa Plant Containers

Hypertufa plant containers are so cute!

I've made lots of concrete plant containers and have heard of hypertufa, but have not yet made any.  The great feature of hypertufa is less weight than concrete.  I love my concrete containers, but huge containers are almost impossible to move around.

Fine Gardening (photo source) has an excellent article on hypertufa, including Peg's secrets, whose containers are shown in the photo.

Click here to go to the article.

Click here for an excellent guide to concrete and hypertufa recipes . . . great information!

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Fabulous Stepping Stone Inspiration

Stepping stones are a quick way to add color and sometimes functionality to an area of your garden.

My favorites are the colorful mosaics like the ones in the photo.

Making your own stepping stones can be a fun experience the whole family can participate in.

Click here for an article that features 23 stepping stone projects!

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DIY Lace-Like Stepping Stones

Here's another creative DIY project to add some pizazz to your garden design.

Karen from Mindful Matters came up with a most unusual way to use lace doilies to paint these stunning stepping stones.  What really makes them special . . . they glow in the dark.  How cool is that?

Her painting technique will work for a number of projects.  Anywhere there is a surface to paint on!  How about a boring concrete carport floor or that back room floor that needs to be painted . . . garden containers, walls . . . you get the idea, you are limited by your imagination.

I will be incorporating Karen's painting technique for a future project for sure!

Click here for Karen's article on how to make these gorgeous stepping stones.

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DIY Fake Rocks and Boulders

There is no limit to what you can create with this type of project.

You may simply want to add some large fake boulders in your garden design, make the facade for the waterfall and pond you have been dreaming of or a raised bed that doubles as a place to sit.

Once you know the basics of creating a rock, the method is the same no matter what the size of the project.

I've worked with concrete for garden projects for more than 10 years and I must say that for me it has been a very satisfying and addicting endeavor.  One project leads to another!

Click here to go to the article, "How to Make Fake Rocks and Boulders" from eHow.  You will also find links to other methods of making rocks, boulders, etc.

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DIY Gel Fire Pits

What an awesome idea!

I love concrete projects and this one is unique, different and something we would use every night for our concrete jungle.  The little fire pit would make an awesome gift for someone who spends a lot of time outdoors.

If you would like to make one for your garden, click here for the tutorial!

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DIY Concrete Containers

Making concrete planters has to be one of the most satisfying and useful crafts ever.  
I love the selection of molds in this video!
Once you make a couple, your imagination will go wild with all kinds of stuff to use to for molds to make not only containers, but pavers and decorative border pavers for your plant beds and excellent for raised beds!  After a couple of years, they become awesome memories of previous seasons.
With so much to do and so little time to devote to the garden, I sincerely hope that I can get my hand in the concrete to make some memories for my garden.
This video is an excellent guide from HGTV . . . check it out!

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Beautiful container plantings

Seems like I love container planting more and more as time goes by.  I love being creative and taking inspiration from other gardeners to come up with my own creations.  

Although there are many wonderful websites to inspire us, my latest favorite is Fine Gardening Magazine's website.  Of course, the website is my photo source!

Today's inspiration is a glimpse of Chanticleer Garden.

Looks like this gorgeous and unique container is more of a mini raised bed, put together with pieces of slate, cut in various sizes.  My idea is to make the pieces made of concrete . . . the forms would be super easy to make.  

Two of them placed diagonally would be awesome looking!  Wouldn't it?  I would love to see this exact design on a larger scale, placed diagonally, as the focal point of a front yard.  Awesome!  We are looking for ideas for raised beds as an alternative to way too much grass in the front yard and this design would be great.

Color variations are endless by using concrete tints or by painting them.  Anyway, love the design!  Who knows?  We may gather the energy to get this project done after the huge tree stump comes down!

Want to see more from Fine Gardening's article and many

 more ideas for container planting?  Click here

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Pebble Stepping Stones

These colorful stepping stones would make

 an awesome addition to our garden!!  

Love this look!

The photo comes from a fan of the Facebook page, Recycled Backyard, brought to you by the publishers  of the awesome magazine Birds and Blooms.

Check their page out for fresh ideas and where to find supplies for your backyard projects.

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Concrete Sofa

This awesome concrete sofa has totally captured my attention!!

I've always enjoyed being creative with concrete blocks, but this project goes down as the most imaginative and awesome ever!

The Captain and I have decided to definitely make the sofa for our concrete jungle carport.  What I really like about it . . . you can water the plants and not ruin the sofa by getting it wet!  My plan is to paint it, but the design is still running around in my head.

Click on the picture to go to the original article for this project, which includes other projects to coordinate with it.  Very cool!!

This is one of the many projects I have pinned to my Pinterest garden board.  So many awesome projects for inspiration lurking around the internet!

  

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Leaf Stepping Stones

One of my favorite garden projects is creating with concrete!

I've been seeing these leaf creations lately and would 

love to make some  for my garden.

Here is my favorite . . . the leaf creations used in a water feature!

Click here for a tutorial on how to make them!

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Mosaic Trash to Treasure

This gorgeous mosaic planter started off as a concrete slab piece with square inserts that someone had ready for the trash.  It goes to show you that one person's trash is another's treasure.  I love the use of mosaic tiles!

Click here for the tutorial on how it went from a ready for the trash concrete slab to gorgeous mosaic planter.

Creative projects for the garden are so cool!

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