Glass is an amazing material that emerged thousands of years ago from molten sand into the crater of the volcano, is today used in many sectors of human activity. Designers and architects can use this aesthetic, ecological and functional construction material in their projects, creating expressive «mirror glass» of the building. The use of glass designers found in landscaping.
The contents
What crushed glass?
Glass gravel is widely used when constructing drainage systems, as oczypok when laying slabs for bridges, and fillings sinuses of the soil near the stone walls. Due to its decorative qualities of glass often used for decoration of flower beds and decoration of garden paths. Shards of glass, used for registration of the site, of course, have no sharp edges.
Shards of glass and decorative sand is made in a special Steklomash by intense grinding and friction, in which the sharp edges just erased
The main advantage of glass is its ability to refract light, creating a composition out of it shimmer and «play» in the sun. Glass is perfectly combined with plants and does not cause them any harm because it is chemically inert.
A key advantage of such inorganic aggregates is a long service life. It does not crumble, does not fade, and maintains attractive appearance over several seasons.
Paths strewn with glass chips, look at any time of the day, mysteriously gleaming in the first sunlight, playing all colors of rainbow at noon and solemnly sparking against the setting sun
Glass garden by Andy Cao
One of the obvious examples of successful application in the design of the site glass gravel is the work of a landscape architect Andy Cao. In one of my projects «Glass garden in Echo Park» garden paths he designed crushed bottle glass brown and terraces — transparent granules in green and blue shades. Grainy glass surface successfully emphasizes the unusual texture winding paths, ponds and flower beds with exotic plants.
Depending on the weather and time of day of the glass granules is changing. But still, the glass scattering on the tracks of the most attractive looks after the rain
Glass elements of landscape design are perfectly combined with the natural environment, which creates a stunning penetration effect «artificial» in «natural».
Italian landscape designer Pino Signoretto for decoration of garden paths, and all used a large glass blocks, laying out of them and retaining walls
The procedure of registration of tracks of glass
Paths of glass is able to fit perfectly into the surrounding landscape. Visually linking different areas of the garden, they create a picturesque scene.
Out of season cover of glass act as a perfect replacement to flowers, and in the season performing the role of their welcome additions
Option #1 — fill crushed glass
When making paths used melted glass fragments with a diameter of 0.3-5 millimeters, which can be purchased in specialized stores. The average cost of a filling ranges from 1-25 $ per kilogram. The choice of material for dumping is better to give preference color glass chips, since, for the lush colors of the garden colourless fragments can just «lost».
The only drawback of the material from the surface very difficult to clean wood litter and accumulating debris.
Colored glass granules to make better tracks, placed in an open area, not under the canopy of trees
The device paths of the glass granules takes place in several stages:
- Markup. Using rope and wooden pegs we outline the contours of future tracks.
- Digging a ditch. At the site with a designated boundary we remove the top layer of soil to a depth of 10-15 cm, forming the so-called bed.
- Laying of geotextiles. The bottom of the pit carefully stamped and non-woven carpeted material that will prevent «sagging» in the ground glass granules and inhibit the germination of weeds.
- Design dumping. On the prepared base and pour a layer thickness of 2.5-3 inch glass gravel.
The dumping of crushed glass tends eventually to silt up toward. The reason for this is mixing it with fine particles of sand and soil. A layer of geotextile will help to prevent siltation and extend the life of cut.
Though a scattering of glass beads, serving as a mulch, retaining moisture and fending off snails, but it cannot fully protect the surface from weed germination.
To prevent germination through the dumping on the surface of the track, weed will help treatment the top layer of turf chemical herbicide type «Hurricane», «Tornado» or «Roundup»
If garden path with a little time will subside, just enough just to pour the second layer of granules. Care of this track is to periodically rake up a rake the pieces of glass.
Option #2 — «second life» glass bottles
A more economical arrangement of the tracks involves the use of old glass bottles.
Bottles of colored glass may provide the basis for filling the surface of the tracks, and create original bumpers
Create an interesting pattern in the path of the bottles is quite simple:
- Planned with the help of pegs the boundaries of the future track.
- According to the planned outline with a shovel prokativaet the ditch, buried in palstica.
- Dug a trench 2/3 filled with a layer of dry sand.
- Lay out the pattern, pushing the bottle into the sand with their necks down.
When building a track, the bottles should be pressed into the sand so that the result is a smooth surface. Accounting for patterns, experiment with colors and shapes – the more use of shades, the motlier will track. Laying out the pattern, the space between the bottles should be filled with soil or sand.
To give lined the path as smooth surface, take a flat Board and place it on lined with bottle bottoms pattern. Walk the plank a few times. This will allow you to evenly distribute the load over the entire surface.
Excellent framing for the glass tracks will make low the flower beds of drought tolerant plants and succulents. These plants are able to benefit from the neighborhood with glass and not afraid to get burned from a lot of glare.
As a border for these tracks can also be small stones of any shape laid out in rows. They will perfectly blend in with the surface and give the track a finished appearance.
Thanks to such luxurious lanes even with a lackluster plot can get transformed into glass multicolored
Well, if it is possible to illuminate the glass surface. When properly organized lighting shimmering in the rays of the street lamps in the path will become a dominant feature of the landscape.
