What Are Garden Globes: Tips For Using And Making A Garden Globe

Garden globes are colorful works of art that add interest to your garden. These stunning decorations have a long history that dates back to the 13th century and are readily available at department stores and garden centers. You can also create your own garden globes or gazing balls to display among your plants. Keep reading for more garden gazing ball info.

What are Garden Globes?

Garden globes are believed to bring prosperity, health, good fortune, and protection from evil spirits. According to historical information, placing a garden globe at the home's entrance will prevent a witch from entering. After the King of Bavaria decorated the Herrenchiemsee Palace with garden globes or gazing balls, they quickly become a common sight in European gardens. Garden globes also have a practical use and, when properly placed, allow the homeowner to see who is visiting before opening the door.

Making a Garden Globe

After learning about the garden gazing ball info and history, you may want to add these stunning decorative pieces to your garden. Making a garden globe requires a bowling ball, sandpaper, grout, colored glass, tile glue, wood putty, and grout sealer. Used bowling balls work well for this project and can be found for a cheap price at bowling alleys and yard sales. Use wood putty to fill the finger holes located in the bowling ball and let harden for at least 24 hours. In order for the tile glue to adhere properly, you must roughen up the bowling ball with sandpaper and wipe the surface clean. Once the surface of the ball is rough, cover a small area with glue and position the colored glass pieces on the glue-covered bowling ball leaving a small gap between each glass piece. After the glue is dry, fill all the gaps with grout and allow to dry. Cover the grout with a grout sealer and let the globe dry once again. Before placing the globe in your garden, buff the colored glass pieces to make them shine.

How to Use Garden Globes

Garden globes are a unique way to enhance your garden's appearance. These versatile balls display your entire garden on its reflective surface and work well alone or when grouped together. Garden globes can be placed on globe stands -- available in various materials such as wrought iron -- or can sit directly on the ground. Gazing balls will accent colors and reflect plant's petals and foliage if placed inside flower beds. You can also group garden globes of varying sizes and colors together, or tether the globes to weights to decorate the surface of ponds. With their seemingly endless uses, garden globes add a whimsical elegance to your landscape or home décor. Manda Flanigan is a freelance writer who spent almost ten years working at an organic garden center where she learned how to care for a wide array of plants using natural, organic, and nontoxic methods.