Back with an update on the progress of my garden stones.  I had hoped to be back sooner but the weather has been hit and miss the last two weeks and it’s affecting what I can get done.

I really wanted to do something with the broken burner grid shown at the end of my previous post and couldn’t wait to see how it would turn out.  To resemble flower centers, the ends of two brass door knobs were cut off so they wouldn’t hit the chicken wire when they were pushed into the concrete. Because of their smooth tapered shape, wires were twisted in and around them to help secure them in the concrete.  Cut and shaped glass petals were pushed gently in place as well. The glass pieces were still loose after an hour or so. I left them in place with the intention of removing them once the concrete was set and then gluing them in, but the next day they were stuck solid. I pushed the grid in a little too far again.  As it dried, the concrete rose up quite a bit in some areas.  After some scraping and rubbing with steel wool it didn’t look so bad and I’m happy with it.  I’d like to make a couple smaller companion pieces for this one, I’m thinking on it.

I’m making more stones with the grid pattern. Again, the iron grids were coated with diesel fuel first so they could be removed.  My helpful husband showed me how to give one snug grid a few gentle taps with a hammer and screwdriver to remove it easily.

I left a large grid embedded in one stone. Two bolts were cut off and pushed in on the sides too just for the heck of it.

I’ve come to the conclusion that pouring four stones in an afternoon is my limit, especially if I’m making the larger ones. I start getting tired. That was the case with my first rock stone.  I wouldn’t have done it if the wooden form hadn’t been pre-prepped and the wire reinforcement already cut. 

I hurriedly grabbed a scoop of dirty sand from the garden along with any flat rocks I could see and a handful of smaller rocks.  I gave all the rocks a quick dunk in a bucket of water to get the dust off.  The flat rocks were laid face down over a thin layer of sand. The smaller rocks were laid and pushed into the bare spots. 

I should have gone slower, but I did try to fill the cracks around the rocks first as I added a thin layer of concrete.  A piece of chicken wire was added and then covered with concrete to fill the form. 

When it was unboxed and brushed clean you could see I didn’t get concrete in all the cracks, but I don’t think that’s terrible. I’ll get back to that problem a little later.

I’ve always wanted to make a bottle cube so I’m sharing this last one before I go.  I love this one.  It’s also small enough that I can make them and others like them in my basement over the winter to be ready next spring.

The inside of the wooden form was 6” x 6” x 5” deep. A glass saw was used to cut the bottoms from two beer bottles.  A bottle cutter or wet saw would work too. The cut edges were lined up and taped together with clear label tape creating a cylinder shape. The cylinder measured 4 ½”H x 3 ½” W.   Needing only a small amount of concrete for this one, I was able to mix it up in an ice cream bucket. The flat top and bottom surfaces of the bottles were wiped lightly with diesel fuel before centering and standing the cylinder in the prepped form.  The cylinder was held down firmly while spooning in the concrete, concentrating on getting it in the corners and filled in around the bottom of the cylinder. Continuing to hold the glass firmly, the form was shaken gently to settle the concrete. I don’t know if it made a difference or not, but I sat a small rockon the cylinder, no wider than the glass, until the concrete was dry.

After setting close to 24 hrs, it was removed from the form to finish drying. Any excess concrete was cleaned off.

Unfortunately, it’s cold here today with no sun.  I had to get a picture of it in the house in front of an open door. I’ll get a better picture ourside when I can. There’s no plan on how cubes like these will be used in the garden yet, but I have the winter to think about it. They’re definitely going somewhere!

There was a tiny bit of concrete left over from the cube so I decided to use it to fill the cracks in the rock stone I had made. I used a nail to kind of poke it down into the crack then topped it off.  I gently brushed most of the excess off it after it dried a bit.  Looks like it might have worked, time will tell.

Looking at the extended weather forecast, I may have a few good days in the second week of November that will be warm enough to get some of my salvaged circles placed in the garden before the temperatures start dropping below freezing every night.

That’s all for now, I’ll return. Stay well friends!