A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I learned how to make concrete leaf castings to put in our gardens. Our instructor was Roberta Palmer, who sells her leaves all over Portland and also holds little how-to workshops in her own backyard. Roberta has her castings tucked throughout her garden. Some of them are left natural concrete, and allowed to weather and collect moss. Others are beautifully painted in gradated colors. This leaf is approximately 15" across. Her yard is lush with big-leafed plants grown specifically to use in her castings. She grows varieties that are quite large, heavily veined, and highly textured. Her garden plots are framed with wonderful arbors and collected treasures. She tucks old ladders and tools among the plants-- so charming! Here the rungs act as shelves for her handmade concrete planters. Roberta walked us through the steps involved in making the concrete leaves, including mixing the concrete, adding colorant, mounding sand, choosing leaves, working with the underside of the leaf, building up the concrete, smoothing the bottom with a brush, and adding a copper fitting (if we wanted to put our cast leaf on a copper pipe pedestal, for a raised bird bath or feeder). Finally, I got to try my hand at it. Here I am, hard at work on my leaf (sorry, can't recall the name of it): Roberta suggested not going all the way to the leaf's edge, but rather making a scalloped finish with small adjacent balls of concrete. (Oh my, I do believe it's time to touch up my roots...) We took our leaves (I made three) home, still on their sand mounds in the sturdy cardboard boxes, covered in plastic, where we are to allow them to 'cure' for several weeks. I peeled away the green leaves a few days ago, and this is what they now look like: Here's the same leaf, with its scalloped edge. That same leaf. I built up the pile of sand so it came out deep and cone-shaped. Notice the copper fitting inserted at the bottom; I think this will be a little bird feeder on a pedestal. My second leaf (rhubarb), just a small little guy to tuck in my yard somewhere. We added a reddish colorant to the concrete to give it a slight terra cotta tint. This was my third leaf, a hosta. Roberta helped me curl the tip over an extra lump of sand to add an 'elfin' feel to this casting. Again, fitted for a copper-pipe pedestal. Love that cute curled tip! And there you have it: my adventures in the garden of concrete leaf castings. When they are fully cured, I'll show you their final resting spots out in the yard. Added bonus: I don't need a green thumb to keep them looking pretty!
Find the perfect gazebo, pergola, or pavilion to complete your landscape. Amish Country Gazebos ships custom built kits directly!
This DIY Cooling Misting System will enable you to entertain all through the summer heat with a refreshing mist to keep everyone cool.
Windmill Water Feature: I made the windmill out of mild steel. It has a bearing, allowing it to turn easily with the wind. The pond is made out of concrete and there is a submersible pump that sucks water out of the pond and through the spout of the windmill. This thing i…
Build this handsome backyard feature in one weekend.
You'll never view cinder blocks the same way again.
Don't you love growing vegetables in the summer? There is nothing better than a homegrown tomato! We don't usually end up with the greatest crop at the end of the season though, so I've been going through the Craftsy vegetable gardening course to learn all about the best methods of planting a successful vegetable garden. I'm learning lots of tips and secrets that I never knew about before, so I'm really looking forward to this growing season! Today, we put together our raised garden boxes. I'm going to show you exactly how to make a garden box in the tutorial
Low-maintenance landscaping in this backyard Yardzen clients live busy lives, so it’s no surprise that one of our top design requests is “low-maintenance plants.” In other words, plantings that look beautiful with little human intervention. This is one of the top reasons to work with a landscape designer— to craft... Read more »
Our new outdoor renovation includes the most gorgeous checkerboard concrete pavers that were laid right over our concrete slab.
Yardzen is the leading landscape design company serving Charlotte, NC. Browse our past designs and learn more about our process today!
A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I learned how to make concrete leaf castings to put in our gardens. Our instructor was Roberta Palmer, who sells her leaves all over Portland and also holds little how-to workshops in her own backyard. Roberta has her castings tucked throughout her garden. Some of them are left natural concrete, and allowed to weather and collect moss. Others are beautifully painted in gradated colors. This leaf is approximately 15" across. Her yard is lush with big-leafed plants grown specifically to use in her castings. She grows varieties that are quite large, heavily veined, and highly textured. Her garden plots are framed with wonderful arbors and collected treasures. She tucks old ladders and tools among the plants-- so charming! Here the rungs act as shelves for her handmade concrete planters. Roberta walked us through the steps involved in making the concrete leaves, including mixing the concrete, adding colorant, mounding sand, choosing leaves, working with the underside of the leaf, building up the concrete, smoothing the bottom with a brush, and adding a copper fitting (if we wanted to put our cast leaf on a copper pipe pedestal, for a raised bird bath or feeder). Finally, I got to try my hand at it. Here I am, hard at work on my leaf (sorry, can't recall the name of it): Roberta suggested not going all the way to the leaf's edge, but rather making a scalloped finish with small adjacent balls of concrete. (Oh my, I do believe it's time to touch up my roots...) We took our leaves (I made three) home, still on their sand mounds in the sturdy cardboard boxes, covered in plastic, where we are to allow them to 'cure' for several weeks. I peeled away the green leaves a few days ago, and this is what they now look like: Here's the same leaf, with its scalloped edge. That same leaf. I built up the pile of sand so it came out deep and cone-shaped. Notice the copper fitting inserted at the bottom; I think this will be a little bird feeder on a pedestal. My second leaf (rhubarb), just a small little guy to tuck in my yard somewhere. We added a reddish colorant to the concrete to give it a slight terra cotta tint. This was my third leaf, a hosta. Roberta helped me curl the tip over an extra lump of sand to add an 'elfin' feel to this casting. Again, fitted for a copper-pipe pedestal. Love that cute curled tip! And there you have it: my adventures in the garden of concrete leaf castings. When they are fully cured, I'll show you their final resting spots out in the yard. Added bonus: I don't need a green thumb to keep them looking pretty!
Find the perfect gazebo, pergola, or pavilion to complete your landscape. Amish Country Gazebos ships custom built kits directly!
Ah, the side yard — the skinny, pass-through space along the side of your house where most homeowners store their trash cans and not much else. While there are constraints to designing a side yard that don’t apply to front yard and backyard landscaping, limits like these are what fuel... Read more »
Our artificial grass provides a beautiful, low-maintenance surface for residential properties. Learn more about ForeverLawn Landscape artificial grass.
