One of the things I love about living in Boise’s North End neighborhood is the streets lined with big trees and diverse architecture. It’s a community that’s made for long walks and often where I get inspiration for projects. Such is the case with these DIY Concrete Landscape Balls.
I spotted these cool spherical landscaping accessories in a neighbor’s flowerbed and knew immediately that I wanted some for my own yard. Pricing them online was a real wet blanket to that plan though. My husband is a resourceful guy so we started brainstorming how we might make them ourselves. It took us a couple tries but eventually we came up with this winning solution.
What You’ll Need
• Glass light fixture globes
• Cooking spray
• Quick set concrete
• Concrete color (optional)
Start with several clean glass globes. I think it’s much more interesting in the final landscape if you can find at least a couple different sizes. This is a great thing to score at thrift and recycled material stores for a fraction of the cost of new.
Give the inside of each globe a generous spray of nonstick cooking spray.
Mix the concrete a little soupier than you would normally. If it’s too dry the outside of the sphere won’t be smooth.
Add in concrete color now if you’re using it. You can have a lot of fun with this, mixing in more than one color or just barely stirring it in so that the end product has a nice swirly pattern to it.
Scoop the mixture into each of the prepared globes, filling all the way to the very top. Jiggle a bit to make sure all the air pockets work their way out and top off with more concrete if needed.
Find a spot to prop up the globes so that they won’t fall over or be disturbed. I know this is going to be hard, but the longer you can leave them to cure, the better. I’m Miss Impatient but I try to wait at least five days.
All that patience is about to pay off now. Holding the globe in a gloved hand, gently tap the glass with a hammer until all the glass breaks away to reveal your masterpiece. Repeat with the remaining globes.
Find that perfect place in your landscape to show off your work of art. Who knows who else you might inspire.
