You certainly can use two mixes wet on wet. Put a nice sloppy fine sand mix to pick up the detail. Wait a few minutes and pour in your rocky premix concrete for strength underneath. If your sandmix gets a little dry just smear on some PVA white glue before pouring in your second mix. Just remember that most premix concretes should be 2" thick minimum because of the agregate size. If you want to make them a little thinner use regular Portlands, sand and BIRDSEYE GRAVEL. Birdseye is finer gravel about 1/4 inch in size used for road repair and you can get it cheap at the same place you get the sand. Birdseye is perfect for stones thinner than two inches. A bag of Portlands, a hundred pounds of birdseye gravel and a hundred pounds of sharp sand is going to make your stones cheaper and stronger than any premix. The reason I suggested a topping mix is they are designed to be runny without a lot of water. They use admixes to accomplish this so the product is very hard and strong. Any topping mix designed to repair concrete walkways or steps is going to hold up very well in a stepping stone and should pick up the pattern detail perfectly. Most places that sell ready mix concrete will sell you all the sand you can shovel for a very modest cost. Ask any brick layer when he goes to get his good sharp sand. Any concrete topping mix should also make very strong paddles. However the grout that was reccommended might be cheaper.

Max, sorry this isn't the best picture. They are still out there in the cold and holding up pretty good. I did not use grout. Underneath I glued a wine cork that I'd drilled a hole into so it would set a small plastic rod. The whole project was cheap and only took a few hours(to let the adhesive dry) and I think they are a pretty addition to the flower bed. Carol

Thanks, everyone...we had fun making these "starlight" garden stakes...to answer your questions: We put $10 on them...don't know if that is too high or not...figure we have about $3 in them...so will see. FM was pretty slow (the first one yesterday of the season)...it was cold, windy & just not a nice day. We didn't sell any of these "starlighters" but we did sell a few recycled t.v. antenna "mini-deco bdhse" that my DH made from scrap wood & a broken tree branch (see below)...we'll try the "starlighters" a few more wks when more people come browsing You know, with HD TV and satellite dish, we no longer needed an antenna...so DH took it apart...cut some small logs off a branch & scraps for roof...I drilled a small hole & glued in a bit of pot liner stuff on front & glued pcs. tog....tah dah! (these sold at $4 ea) nana...the green fence stakes fit inside the white metal rails (each 5/8")...DH pounded them in a bit. concrete...for wood rails, my DH drills a hole & then adds a metal rod...that way, the wood rail is out of the dirt! Thanks, GJers, for your comments! Jeanne S.

I just use the bamboo ones, with twist ties on a roll. I bought lots of stem supports a few years ago (vinyl coated wire with a spiral at the top), but those proved not strong enough to hold the weight of a lily once the buds get large. I had some 4 footers last year, which did need staking. Actually I stake almost all the lilies.