DIY Landscaping Garden Statues

Cast Leaves

• Cast concrete leaves to make birdbaths, tabletops, stepping stones or other large, flat decorations. Begin by selecting large leaves for your project. Banana leaves, elephant ear leaves or giant lily pads make great ornamental leaves.

  To create a casting surface, fill a large box or concrete form with damp sand. Press your leaf into the sand, being sure to capture the leaf's veins in the structure. Lift away the leaf and fill the recess with a plastic dry cleaner bag.

  Prepare concrete for your casting by mixing with water. If you wish to use concrete dye for your sand casting, mix it with the concrete at this point. Pour the concrete into the casting. Press chicken wire or another mesh reinforcement into the casting. Cover with plastic and let cure. When your casting has finished curing, you will be able to lift it from the mold.

Hypertufa

• Hypertufa is a mix of sand, peat moss, aggregate and cement. Once hardened, it forms a lightweight stone that is like volcanic rock. Hypertufa is softer than concrete and can be carved. The mixture can also be pressed into molds to form sculptures, shaped into troughs or molded to create whimsical garden spheres.

  Like a number of kitchen sauces, hypertufa has various recipes. The basic ingredients include Portland cement, perlite or vermiculite, peat moss, sand and water. For a heavier rock, add more cement. For a lighter one, add more peat moss.

Moss

• Give already established garden statues an aged look by establishing moss colonies on them. Form a paste by mixing a fist-sized clump of porcelain clay with three cups water. Add to this one cup of fresh, shredded moss and one cup of undiluted fish emulsion. Paint this mixture on concrete statues with a paintbrush. Mist the mixture, but do not wash it off.