glass tiled garden wall
If I gave out awards to my neighbors for beautifying their public spaces, this house would definitely win one of them.
This is their garden wall right next to the front sidewalk. It’s topped with attractive latticework, but what’s special is the tile below. Gray field tiles give way to a central area of colorful glass mosaics. Glass tile has been catching on for indoor use, but it can make a most excellent statement outdoors.
If there’s a down-side to this project, it’s the disconnect between the hardscape and the green materials. You can see that the horsetails have already started to spread throughout the strip. Within just a few years you won’t be able to see the glass tiles. And that cute little agave planted up against the wall. Yikes! That’ll be a big monster before you know it, fighting it out with the horsetails in a mess of planting.
My advice? Lose the agave. It’s a beaucoup spectacular plant, especially when it blooms. But this is just about the wrongest place to put it. And lose the horsetails, too. Their upright geometry has always appealed to me, but they spread like syrup on a pancake.
Southern-hemisphere restios are starting to become more commonly available, and they have a striking vertical architecture that would be a worthy replacement for the horsetails–visually between a grass and a horsetail in appearence, depending on the species. A couple clumps of it in front of the wall would let you see around and through the plants, and the plants wouldn’t stray far from the base of the leaves.
Two good choices for this spot in the three-foot range: Chondropetalum tectorum and Thamnochortus bachmannii. The first is getting to be available many places. (The photo to the left is from San Marcos Growers, who distributes it to nurseries.) The second…well, I’m growing some from seed right now as I write this…
February 17 2009 | Categories: gardening • landscape design | Tags: equisetum • garden walls • glass tile • hardscape • horsetails • restios | 6 Comments »
