Homemade Rocks

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Once you've mastered the technique, there's no limit to the ways you can customize these homemade rocks to fit your garden style.
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Figure A
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Figure B
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Figure C

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Figure D
You can add a lot of rocks to your landscape without hauling them in your car. The catch is, you make the "rocks" right there in your garden. It's an easy and inexpensive way to add depth and texture to your landscape design.  Let's take you  through the steps:


  1. Determine how big you want your rock to be. For medium-sized rocks, choose a dish tub as the mold.
  2. Add sand to your mold, pushing the sand to the edges of the mold to create a curved bottom (figure A). The sand will give your rock a nice, round shape.
  3. Place a large plastic bag in the sand, and spread it open. Bradley uses a clear bag so she can see her materials as she forms them into a rock (figure B).
  4. For a woodsy, aged look, place moss in the bottom of the bag (figure C). When you're finished making your rock, the moss will be on top. You can also use pebbles, tile, or whatever ingredient fits the look of your garden.
  5. Now it's time to mix the cement in a separate tub. Bradley has chosen a mix that contains gravel to give her rock some texture (figure D). You could also add the gravel to the mix, or even purchase cement tint to change the color of your rock.
  6. Add water to the cement mix (figure E), using the package directions for the correct ratio of cement to water. Then mix well (figure F).

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    Figure E
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    Figure F

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    Figure G
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    Figure H
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    Figure I

  7. After the cement is mixed, add it to the mold, putting it inside the plastic bag on top of the moss (figure G).
  8. When you've added enough cement to the bag to equal the size of the rock you have in mind, grasp the corners of the bag and twist to form a rounded shape (figure H).
  9. Pack the sand around the bottom and sides of the bag to hold the form while it dries.
  10. Break the plastic bag and unwrap the rock (figure I), turn it over (moss on top) and place it in your garden.

When creating large, boulder-size rocks, use a cardboard box as the mold and create the rock where you want it to be in the garden. Then you can just rip off and discard the box when the cement has set. You can use the same method to create homemade planters.