There are glass items found in the yard or garden that can be collected. The most obvious is the gazing ball. A large colored glass sphere, coated on the inside with a silvering process, is placed on a pedestal, or laid on the ground, to provide a splash of color and shine. It reflects the plants around it as well as the sky and sunlight.
Silver gazing ball.
These can be very attractive, and like pink flamingos, impressive in a crowd. With all the various sizes, colors and surfaces, there are a lot to choose from. If properly sealed (once the interior is coated), there is no reason you cannot store them in the yard, unless you have teenagers.
Silver crackled gazing ball.
Smaller gazing balls can be used indoors for decoration. In the past they were placed in the butler’s pantry so the butler could see everything that was going on around him. In this case, the ball was called a butler’s ball.
Blue crackled gazing ball.
Another glass collectible found in the yard or garden is a rain gauge. Today this is probably made of plastic, but in the past rain gauges were made of glass with metal holders. This would be a fun collectible for searching through flea markets and antique shops, if your tolerance for frustration is high. It might take quite a lot of browsing between purchases.
Green house.
Greenhouses, of course, are nearly all glass, or were in the past. As a glass collectible, they would require a large space for display, and manpower to move and set up them up. You can probably buy old greenhouses for very little if you can haul it away yourself, and can take road trips. New greenhouses are delivered to your front door. Once you have your collection going, you can grow your own vegetable and flowers, as a bonus. In northern climates, plants can be started early if protected by a window on a box frame that allows the sun in but protects the plants from cold. These are called cold frames, and would make a unique and useful, if somewhat visually dull, collectible. They would be easier to store than full greenhouses, though.
Seed bird feeder.
One place where glass occurs commonly in the garden is bird feeders. While seed feeders usually have one or two sides that are glass, the real interesting collectible here is hummingbird feeders. The syrup reservoir is usually glass so the levels of syrup are easily verifiable, and the collar, with its openings for feeding and rests, is usually metal or plastic.
The usual format for a hummingbird feeder.
But there are single tube feeders made from art glass available. These come in all colors and patterns, and look beautiful hanging in the trees or from the balcony railing. I should mention that often they are non-functional as the tube is so large the syrup drips out of the feeder due to gravity. But they are beautiful additions to a garden, and the hummingbirds quickly learn that they are for looks only and pass them by for the feeders filled with the sugar water they need.
An unusual hummingbird feeder.
So, look around in your yard, or your neighbors, and see what glass collectibles you discover. (Please, no poaching from your neighbor’s yard. They will see it in your yard and take it back.)
The images on this post are from Stock Xchnge.
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