Lighting in the garden adds interest and mood and with shorter days resulting in less daylight, the glow of garden lighting adds a warm, welcoming touch to our dark evenings.
It is usually a hassle for gardeners to
install electric lighting and of course, they have to be turned on and
off. Here’s a simple, inexpensive garden
stone you can make that incorporates a solar garden light available at the
dollar store for just that, one dollar!
It goes on by itself at night and off in the
morning.
What you’ll need:
- bag of sand topping concrete mix (in the
yellow/black/red bag)
-plastic mixing bucket
-8 ounce measuring cup
-mason’s trowl
-mud gloves
-clear or white plastic covered work surface
-a permanent marker
-a piece of a 5/8 diameter pipe or dowel
-glass
pieces and marbles for mosaic
-1 solar garden light
What you do:
1. Spread out clear or white plastic on hard
work surface.
2. Find something that will give you a 12”
diameter circle when you trace it with a marker. Trace the circle right onto your plastic work
surface.
3. Put
on your mud gloves and measure 8 cups of the sand topping mix into the plastic
mixing bucket. Slow add water and mix
until the concrete is the consistency of clay- not soupy, but stiff enough to
stand on itself. It has to be firm
enough to hold shape when sculpted.
4.
Using the trowl, scoop out all of the mixed concrete from the bucket in
the middle of the traced circle. Form
the clay-like mix into what looks like a giant cookie at least 2 inches thick
with softly rounded corners. Allow to
sit for 5 minutes.
5.
Draw a peace symbol on the surface of this large cookie and with the
trowl in a vertical position, cut out the spaces in between the peace symbol.
(Remember to draw a peace symbol,an upside down “Y” with vertical line through
it versus the logo of a popular luxury car company!).
6.
Smooth the edges of the peace symbol with your gloved hands and poke a
hole in the center with the 5/8” pipe or dowel.
Check to see that that shaft of your solar light will easily fit into
this hole. Arrange glass pieces and
marbles where you want them and gently tap them into the surface of the
concrete using your trowel handle.
7. Let
your stone harden overnight and the next day, clean up the rough edges using
the trowel. An old toothbrush is
perfect for easy cleaning of the glass pieces.
8. You
can accent your stone with exterior latex paint. Have them mix up a small sampler size in
the
color of your choice at your home improvement store.
9.
Situate your stone either in or along a pathway in your garden. Insert
the solar light
in the
center hole and push into the ground. If
you’d prefer, remove the stem of the light and just stick the head in the
center hole of the stone. The faceted
casing sends out beautiful rays all around the stone.
