With better weather, many of us are emerging from our winter hibernation, eager to start a few outdoor projects in the sun. What could be a more perfect project than sprucing up your backyard with some garden features? In this article we offer a few glass block garden feature ideas for inspiration.
Note that while glass block’s strength and durability make it a valuable material to use in your garden, some glass block is made specifically for indoors only. For outdoor garden features we recommend using a mortar installation and the following types of glass block:
- 3” Thinline Series
- 4” Premiere Series
- Basic Line
- Doric from the Design Line
- Solid Glass Brick
- Horizontal Pavers
1. Glass Block Garden Pathway Lighting
Pathway lighting is one of the most magical garden features you can add to your outdoor space. It adds a beautiful soft glow while contributing to safety and security. Photovoltaic Solar Powered Lights — the glass block paver lights we carry — are extremely durable, safe to walk on and make a great addition to your garden walkways. Incorporate them along the edge of your garden paths or embedded in a pattern throughout. They work well with stone or brick walkways or with natural grass ones and come in square or round shapes to fit your pathway design.
Not only will glass block solar lighting brighten up your walkways, they do it in an ecological fashion with sunlight. They store sunlight in a long-lasting lithium ion battery with the light produced by a low-voltage LED bulb that comes on automatically at dusk and turns off at dawn.
Even better, these glass block paver lights are practically maintenance free (just sweep them off), with a service life of up to 25 years or 50,000 hours — and they keep on working through snow, rain and extreme temperatures.
Photovoltaic Solar Powered lights work well in other areas of your garden you’d like to add an atmospheric luminosity as well, such as around a pool or embedded in your garden beds.
2. Glass Block Yard Art
Whether whimsical or sophisticated, glass block yard art can bring a sense of fun and liveliness to a garden. The beauty of glass block is that it interacts with light. When you create an outdoor sculpture that uses glass block, in a sense you are sculpting light. Glass block comes in a multitude of colors, opacities, patterns and sizes, offering various degrees of reflection and refraction — and this gives you a lot to play with!
Here’s a few ideas for creating glass block yard art:
- Create a sculpture to add sparkle to your grounds or garden beds. A sculpture could be as simple as a staked vertical stacking of colored and/or patterned glass blocks, or a garden tower that lights up at night. Alternatively, you could incorporate glass block into a wood or stone sculpture to bring light and transparency into the composition.
- Hang framed, painted single glass block pieces in your outdoor trees.
- Use glass block or glass brick to edge your garden beds — either a single color, or in a simple colored pattern.
3. Outdoor Walls
Glass block outdoor walls bring beauty and function together. Some outdoor walls absolutely overlap with yard art; If you are very artistic you might try an abstract mural wall using only colored and patterned glass block. While such a wall might have a functional aspect of providing privacy or a windblock its beauty will be most readily seen and felt as a piece of art.
For more practical-first ideas, how about using glass block as a decorative element within the walls around your garden. For example:
- Add a layer of glass block wall to top the wall around your pool
- Use a layer of glass block within stone walls or benches
- Use a layer of lighted glass block to top stone pillars
Inspired to Get Going on Some New Garden Features?
We hope we’ve awakened your imagination on the possibilities of using glass block for unique and beautiful garden features. If you’ve got an idea and need some guidance, our experts are always ready to help.
Give us a follow!