Last Fall I started creating my raised flower garden area in a spot in our backyard that was an awkward shape for our riding lawnmower. So when we re-planted our lawn we left this area as bare ground so that I could create my flower garden. I added two raised beds and then this year added the arch that connected the two beds. In order to prevent weeds from coming up and to have a nice surface to walk on I added wood chips as a ground cover. I envision this area as a peaceful retreat spot to sit and enjoy the outdoors. So in addition to the flowers I thought it would be fun to create some backyard DIY stepping stones for this flower garden.
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Supplies Needed for DIY Stepping Stones
- Concrete mix
- Water
- Bucket or wheelbarrow
- Cooking spray
- Stepping stone forms
- Decorative rocks
- Wooden skewer (for writing in the concrete)
This outdoor space will be a great garden area full of color and I wanted to make sure these DIY stepping stones reflected that.
The first step will be to taking some cooking spray or olive oil and spray the inside of each one of the plastic stepping stone mold (these are great to buy in bulk on Amazon). The cooking spray will help when it is time to release the stepping stones after they have set. If you don’t want to purchase the stepping stone forms you could also use a pie tin (I know I have a huge collection of these to use for random projects).
These concrete stepping stones could also be done in any other shape besides a circle, including a square or even butterflies, flowers or octagons.
After the forms are all ready it is time to mix the concrete. I chose to use the basic concrete mix that I found at Lowe’s home improvement store.
Follow the directions on the bag to slowly add a little bit of water to the wheelbarrow/bucket with the mix and then either hand mix with a large painters stick or as in our case a garden hoe or if you have a drill attachment for concrete that will work well too. I would suggest wearing a mask when mixing up the concrete as the concrete dust is not good to breathe in and it creates a lot of dust when first being mixed.
Once the concrete is mixed to the right consistency (I like to have it on the thicker side) you will want to pour it into the forms. After pouring into the forms I like to knock the forms on a table so that it moves the air bubbles to the top so that they pop. (This is very similar to when you make a cake!)
The next step will be waiting for the concrete to start setting up so that you can place the decorative rocks, mosaic pieces, or drawings in the concrete. I think that sea glass pieces would also be a good idea to add to the stepping stones. If you start doing the designs too soon the rocks will sink into the wet concrete instead of sitting on the top. In my case because I mixed this on the thicker side it was only about 10 minutes of wait time.
I wanted to add several decorative elements to each of the stepping stones so I bought a variety of colorful stones to decorate each one. These decorative designs were glass beads and ceramic mosaic tiles that I decided to put into flower patterns on each of the stepping stones.
Another great way to decorate these stepping stones would be to have kids put in their handprints or if they are a younger kid they could do a foot print as either of these options adds a personal touch. This entire project could also be completed by using several stepping stone kits however I feel it is more cost effective to make your own and add your own design elements.
Once you are done with your designs you will need to wait 24-48 hours to let the concrete set up. The wait time will really depend on the temperature that the concrete is stored at, ours was in our garage and our daily temperatures were in the 50s so it took a little longer.
These stepping stones are an easy DIY and would also be a great idea for kids to make for Mother’s day gifts or even Father’s Day. I love that we have a great stepping stone path in my future flower garden beds for us to all enjoy for years to come.
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