When I started to regrade along the alley side of our garage, I kept coming across these shiny, brown obsidian-like rocks. They were everywhere. Each shovelful of dirt yielded a few more and it was like finding buried treasure. I asked the neighbor across the alley, who has lived here for ten years, if she knew what they were, but she had never seen them before. We figured it was some kind of landscaping rocks. She took one over to the previous owners' granddaughter's house (she had lived here for fourteen years prior), but K. had never seen them before, either.Eventually--um, when I dropped one on the concrete driveway and chipped it--I figured out they were made of glass. Very thick, dense glass. I had never even heard of glass being used as landscaping rocks! But I did find a few vendors online, calling glass the "new" landscaping medium. The following pics are from The Garden of Glass.
They come in several sizes--from itty-bitty to egg-sized rocks like the ones I found--and in just about every color imaginable. So now I'm intrigued. I want to create two flower beds on either side of the walkway up to the front door and these might add that unique, eye-catching appeal I'm looking for. I like the more natural-looking grass green or amber, but the glass also comes in such colors as cobalt blue, hot pink, and neon orange.
So what do y'all think--way cool or incredibly tacky? Go on, give me your honest opinion!
Or is this something best left to a Southwest or more temperate garden than our Chicago-area one?
16 comments:
Very nice to look at. And the patterns are cool too. Seems like it might break and have a lot of sharp edges to watch out for
They are really cool. Are they sharp? I like to walk around in the yard and garden barefooted so I wonder if it would pose a problem.
I vote "no" unless it's a natural color...
Gotta be honest, i think they are super gross. Unless you used some like the ones that you found in your yard - so that they are really dark and resemble rock.
This is what I love about you guys--the brutal honesty. :-)
I do like the grass green and the dark amber, and may experiment with something around one of the birdbaths. Keep it small, like an accent.
Tiny OPB and Ethan--Some of the new ones for sale look like beach glass, with smooth edges.
I was walking on the glass we found here without any problems, but the one I dropped on the concrete did have sharp edges after it broke.
Way cool!
*Sigh* Naughty spammers...
I think this may be one of tose things that you don't know how you feel about it until it's put in place...but I wouldn't use too much of it. I do think around a birdbath would be enough to accent.
adding my two cents worth . . . adding around the birdbath, for a start is good. I'm just concerned about sharp edges too. Especially our dog, she doesn't watch where she's walking . . . or cares . . :)
momlady
You know, I like the bird bath picture a lot! But, the teal walkway just doesn't do it for me.
I prefer to let the plants and flowers put on the show...I don't even use "strikingly colored" mulch, so as to not take away from the plants' display. So I'd vote no. But that's my personal opinion.
I'm no interior/landscape designer, but I am a journalist, and the first thing you learn about layouts in a mag or newspaper is that you want a focal point. In landscaping, I abide by those rules too--that the plant(s) should be the focal point. I fear that the glass rock would draw the eye away from the plants.
Hey Andy--I didn't realize you were a journalist. Seems a lot of house bloggers work in publishing.
I'm a bit like a magpie, I love shiny, sparkly things and glass garden accents like wind chimes or those glass hummingbirds on a stick you place in pots often catch my eye. I'll try to contain my tackiness for the sake of the rest of the family, but I think the garden will see a bit of glass somewhere. :-)
Yep. mag editor. But in b2b. Nothing "fancy"...but it pays the bills and all. I guess we all just can't get enough of writing/publishing... :)
Anyway, to give you an idea of how I am about it (personal preference, of course), it was a struggle just to put a little white flower pot pedestal from my wife's grandmother's house in the garden, as I felt as though it took too much away from the plants. ;) I'm nuts that way, in a sense. :) The key is, like I said once before on your blog...do what YOU know you'll like, not what others think you should, and you'll be most pleased with the end result. :)
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