Fleur I'm sorry to say your chances are terrible.
Freezing bursts the individual cell walls which means your leaves will turn to goo when thawed.

Well heck! Have you tried it or are you just guessing.

I'm a cook.:)

There were other postings a while ago referring to preserving leaves.If all else fails,what about the old fashioned way of preserving the leaves/flowers etc by placing them between 2 pieces of wax paper;then,apply gentle heat with an old iron?Seems to me I used to do this back in eastern Canada when I was just a tad with maple leaves.
Damn,I might try it myself!
Cheers from here

There are some leaves, evergeens,etc.Look around, what can you find still OK after a frosty night. Or look up the mold making tutorial for leaves (with POP). Or try to get leaves from indoor plants. Even many different maple leaves can be still in good shape after winter.
If you want to preserve the leaves, place it between 3-4 pages of newspaper and press it down with bricks, books for a few days.
Good luck.

tufaenough, on thinking about it for a while, I'm not at all sure they would be goo. Spinach is frozen and still retain's some of it's characteristics but before it is frozen it is blanched. I wouldn't blanch my leaves and would use them immediately after thawing. It may also depend on the substance of the leaf. I want to do my last rhubarb, among others. This sounds like it needs further investigation. Another "in the interest of science" project.

P.S. I got 3/4 of a bag of garnet SAND in addition to the garnet powder. All casting is on hold for the moment though.

There is a resurrected post on accoutrements where freezing leaves is mentioned. there have also been a few posts on here. If memory serves me correctly members of the brassica family seem to do best, makes sense as many of their leaves are kinda rubbery and tough. I inadvertantly froze a rhubarb leaf earlier this year, I picked it, but something came up so I dampened it and stuck it in the fridge. When I came back a few hours later it was frozen and limp when thawed - I have enough problems with the leaves leaking and causing the concrete not to set so I didn't even try it. It was probably the last hole-less leaf too - sniff :(

I do recall a post here where someone had put leaves in a bucket of water in a cool spot and forgot about them, there were in good shape a long time later.

Fleur what does the garnet sand look like? Can't seem to get it here, but I sure would like to try it!

Garnet sand is red(garnet)and is used primarily in sandblasting.
For those wanting to preserve what's outside,google it-you'll find lots of methods.The primary seems to be involving glycerine.
good luck and
cheers from here

Sorry Fleur, I shouldn't have said the leaves will turn to goo. That was a bit of an exaggeration but I can't imagine a type of broadleaf that would be castible after thawing.
There might be a few that are dry and fiberous enough to survive in a usable form but even those will probably be leaking organics into the surface of your casting material.

maybe you could try silk leaves, might be able to get some on sale, or at a dollar store. Just a thought. Or you could put a plant, or stem with leaves,in water, in doors ,as if you would to try and root a plant ?
bonnie

Voice of experience - as I bought a freezer dedicated to saving an abundance of leaves ..... members of the cole family are GREAT - they thaw and are quite usable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Perfect!!!!!!!! No gooooooooooooooooo! Rhubarb? Well, that was another story all together. Not one of goo, however. No goo at all. Leaf performed well - or so it seemed - BUT the concrete would NOT set up - did not harden. Reason???? The sour aspect of rhubarb is due to oxalic acid - and when the cell walls break - the acid is released. Cell wall breakage does not result in goo - by the way - only the digestion of the cellulose would cause that - but there are not too many cellulose digesting enzymes out there....(uh, ever notice how much you do NOT digest corn kernel jackets) - well, anyway, you probably didn't need that information - but suffice it to say that cellulose/cell wall is tough stuff.

So - to summarize - some leaves contain chemicals which leak out of the cell walls on freezing - and will prevent their use.

I did use a thin sheet of plastic wrap OVER the frozen leaf and found that while it allowed the casting - it was w/ the loss of detail.

My freezer is now used for food, no more leaves in there - but it was an interesting experiment.

HTH

Vicki

I freeze my cabbage for making cabbage rolls.
No goo.:)

As far as the rhubarb, it's academic now. The deer ate it last night. So now I'll be looking at leaves from various trees. I may still try what remains of the rhubarb to see what it does and just make a small cast of the lower part of the leaf. If it's a loss, no big deal.

Gee, iffen corn is so tough, we could use it for aggregate! (ducks)

I can see it now - corn kernels in the hypertufa- what a wonderful picture!!!! Tufaenough - if you have frozen cabbage leaves for cabbage rolls, then why in the world would you have said goo would happen when Fleur asked you.....AND your justification was that you were the cook - hmmmmmmmmm....can't think of any time when my green beans, peas, corn, cabbage, beet greens or any of that ever ever EVER turned to goo. Goo happens when you cook Cream of Wheat!!! (I hate COW) .........

Fleur - I am just stunned that your deer ate rhubarb - cuz boy oh boy - those are some tuff deer ... Oxalic acid is poisonous.

Anyway, Fleur, cabbage makes some awesome castings, as do cauliflower - so you might find some of those at this late in the season date.....and if you find excesses, freeze them knowing they are usable.

Best wishes - and grins

Vicki

Nothing I'd like to see better than poisoned deer at this point. All I have left in my extensive garden are a few lobelia, cerinthe, heathers, parts of some persicaria guarding some fall asters and a small clump of KMOTGG. I now have the funniest looking garden I've ever had...rooted stems w/o leaves.

I've cast all the cabbage leaves and a couple of cauliflower that I had that were not too bug-eaten and I agree, they make terrific leaves. I'm thinking I'll have to beg some leaves from friends who are more citified and less rural for my little experiment. With my luck, they've probably got the grasshopper problem though. Maybe it's time I started making a few balls.

Your description of your garden of stems w/o leaves reminds me of the huge pincushion I found one day after the deer had deleafed and defruited my zucchini .....it really did look like a pin cushion - not one leaf, not one squash, just stems. I don't even LIKE zucchini, but that didn't make me happy. Venison tastes better than zucchini, but that doesn't mean I could be moved to killing Bambi's mother!!! LOL

One winter casting suggestion - check out the savoy cabbage in your produce section - interesting texture - even if they are not large! Well worth casting!

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!

grins

Vicki

I live in a very small town and the produce sections here carry only the most ordinary things. Savoy cabbage? Surely you jest. It's on my list of things to plant for myself next year though.

I'm not a leaf caster, but I did run across the page below on various methods of preseving leaves & flowers. Might be useful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Preserving Leaves & Flowers...

I have had a hydrangea leaf sitting in a bucket of water for about three weeks now, and it is still as good as new. I had to get some other leaves done, and hopefully I will get to this hydrangea in the next few days. I think a bucket of water would serve quite well to keep a leaf for awhile, but not sure on the time frame.

Glenda