Every garden deserves a bit of whimsy.
Mini gazing balls are very easy to make. You need a solid, hard rubber ball, a drill, some strong glue, grout, and flat gems/marbles.
The first challenge is to drill a hole in the ball. This is needed so that a dowel or support can be inserted to make this into a plant poke. I think other hard balls, like baseballs or croquet balls would work well too.
Once the hole is drilled you can start to glue on the flat sided gems. It doesn’t take many to cover a small ball. Then I added some grout to fill in all the spaces. Let dry and rub off any extra grout.
I used 2 thin metal rods to support the mini gazing ball to give it a bit more support.
Garden folklore says a gazing ball will ward off witches from your garden. During the 17th Century in England, gazing balls were used to protect plants from the wicked witches who would come to steal them. The gazing balls attracted witches, but once the witches saw their ugly reflections, they fled the garden and the plants were safe.
Have you seen the large gazing ball?
