I have come to the conclusion I am a glass lover-you think? It all started with the bottle trees and glass on glass mosaic doors and has now moved on to just plain old wine bottles and glass plates for my garden. Glass is one of those things that provides so much color and requires so little care other than taking caution to not break the glass of course; which I did recently:(
Well today is glass day and Glass Day comes at an opportune time. You see, the garden is beginning to slow down and turn brown. Soon, most of the plants will disappear for the winter. Once the plants are gone the glass in my garden takes center stage. While my garden in no way resembles Chihuly at Cheekwood with its lovely glass sculptures I do have a few glass items here that I can enjoy all year round in my own garden. Let's start with one of the two glass mosaic doors pictured above. This particular glass mosaic sits outside my window and faces WSW. It catches all of the sun's rays perfectly and I have the greatest view of it from my kitchen window. It also looks pretty nice tucked into a garden and really makes a nice focal point along with the plants. This is a view of it facing east in the morning. I enjoy this view while in the garden early in the morning but I mostly look at this sculpture from inside the house behind the sculpture. This glass door is my main winter focal point for color. The other glass door is also visible from the house and faces west. It catches the sun wonderfully during the summertime but not so much in the winter when the sun is low. Nonetheless it too provides great color because no matter where the sun is located the doors look different all day long.
Next up on Glass Day are a few new projects I just completed thanks to my daughter Christine. On her recent trip to Maine to pick up her household goods she picked up a couple of bikes from my parent's home. One of the two bikes was lovingly placed in my garden where it will remain permanently. The other bike lost its wheels to my western fence where it became a glass project. I had picked up some transparent glass plates at a few thrift stores and stuck them into the spokes on these wheels. I then stood the wheels up next to the fence and chained them to the fence to prevent them from falling over. The glass glows as it catches all available light and looks like shimmering stars when the sun sets behind these plates. It is a lovely view!
I did not come up with this project on my own. I had clipped a picture of a wheel just like this from a recent issue of Fine Gardening. I thought it a great idea and a cheap one too! I think I'll try to get some more rims for my very long rear fence. It has been suggested to me that perhaps bicycle repair stores may have some extra rims they won't use or can't use which may be very cheap or even free. I hope so!
This is a simple project in my new 'Non' Pool Garden. This grouping of bottles is 'planted' en masse and sure does add to the garden. I planted coneflowers all around the bottles; but they are small right now so not really visible. That is fine though because the bottles will provide year round interest and once the coneflowers grow up and come into bloom the whole area should be quite a sight!
Normally I view my bottle tree from the house but on this day I was facing the house as the sun came up in the east. It made a lovely sight for me so I just had to add this view in to this post too. Glass is such an awesome material in the garden. It does not rot, rust, or fade away. It shimmers and sparkles and glows and makes me ever so happy-that is what gardening is all about right?
Finally a view from the deck and house toward Mr. C's cow pasture. We have the most wonderful view of the sunset each night. As a bonus we get to enjoy the field and its cow pond. I love having cows for neighbors! Just had to say that. I've added to the view by placing my glass wheels and bottle tree in strategic positions on the boundary fence. This view tops almost all in the fall and winter and the glass really makes it a wonderful sight. It helps to keep me....
in the garden....
