Making Boulders and Rocks

So you wanna make a rock garden but found out that natural river rocks will cost you thousands. Not only that, removing river rocks can disrupt the natural water flow and disturb the river habitat and may cause flooding as well as the reduction in water quality. So what can you do? Make it yourself. The best part of making it yourself if that you can plan the size and shape you want and its fun and affordable to do. Here are the materials you will need:

• Render: This is is an exterior plastering material and does not need any further mixing with sand. Therefore, all you have to do is mix it water slowly till the consistency is thick like a cake batter- not runny but thick enough to layer and still retain shape. My boulder was ??? x. cm and took one 25kg bag of render to make.

• A plastic trash bag filled with recyclable waste, I used cereal boxes, milk cartons etc in mine. tie the bag and wrap the bag with a large piece of paper and tape. The shape and size will depend on what size u would like to make.

• Chicken wire mesh

• Waterproof wall sealer. As you rock will be out in the elements it is important to not skip this step as the main purpose of sealer paint is to provide good adhesion between the render and the new paint.

• Paint in 3 colours. The colours will depend on the desired outcome. As I had terracotta outdoor tiles as a pathway in my garden, I decided to go go for something will roughly the same shade. The 3 colours used in this project were…..???

• An old paint roller, knife and any other materials for adding texture to your rock. You can use anything to make it more natural even a steel brush. the more imperfect the surface is the more natural it will look and that’s what makes ithis project so easy…there’s no need to make it smooth and perfect!

• Paint brushes

• A large sponge

• 2 spray bottles. I only used 2 as I had filled only the middle shade in one spray bottle and water in the other.