We love bird baths AND we love our huge Rhubarb leaves—so we decided to combine them into this easy DIY Cement Rhubarb leaf bird bath!

Cement rhubarb leaf bird bath on a wooden log set in a garden, half full of water

We also had gigantic leaves and a partial bag of concrete at the same time as a broken bird bath bowl. So this was a project begging to be done!

This is DIY project is truly easy enough for the kids to help with. There’s a little prep, some fast action while pouring the cement onto the leaf, then patience while waiting to dry. The only fussy part is removing any stuck leaf material by scrubbing off the cement after it has set. From start to finish, ours took a few days to complete- and will last years!

We opted for quick-set cement, mostly because we had a partial bag of it laying around 😉.

Woman holding a very large rhubarb leaf

Rhubarb Leaf Bird Bath Project

Find a perfect (or perfectly imperfect) rhubarb leaf. If you want to know how to grow great rhubarb, check out my article HERE.

*Note that this is also fun with Elephant Ear and other large leaves.

You can then lay the leaf out upside down on some newspaper or old plastic (we used an old piece of landscape fabric) and trace the outline of the leaf. 

mixing concrete
thankful for my always handy hubby and his tools!

Then pour, shape, and mound the sand/dirt inside the outline to create the ‘bowl’. I opted for to go thicker than suggested 1 inch thick—averaging about 1.5 inches thick. This bird bath is “substantial” (read heavy) but will likely hold up to the random footballs and soccer balls that were the demise of our previous bird bath (fingers crossed anyway).

Remember that this will be the exact shape of your rhubarb leaf bird bath, so take your time smoothing it out and making easy-to-land-on edges for the birds!

Next, lay the leaf back on the mound of sand/dirt.

Mix your quick-set concrete (or regular concrete if you have more patience than I do) and pour over the mounded leaf, smoothing out as you go. Take extra care around the edges, rounding those by pulling up on the newspaper or plastic.

The upside down phase, you can see some of the leaf edges sticking out.

Depending on the kind of concrete you used and the weather, it will be dry in 2 to 48 hours.

Then gently lift the concrete away from the form, taking time to ooh and ahh!

Using a hose and scrub brush, work away any leaf material that doesn’t pull away from the concrete.

Our results were awesome: a cement rhubarb leaf bird bath with a deep middle for really exuberant bird bathing. And gently sloping edges to allow baby birds to nap and insects to drink. I mean is there anything better?!?!

One of the unexpected fun parts of this project was how excited my youngest was to find a log that looked just right to serve as the bird bath pedestal.

Bird baths can be part of Creating a Wildlife Habitat in your garden.

Bird baths are a great addition to any garden. Not only do they help birds hydrate and keep clean feathers, but they also attract birds that might not eat from your feeders. They attract other pollinators too! Adding a water source is a good ecological practice no matter what it looks like!

Let me know if you make this project, and what you think of it!

Dig in,
Michelle