Mirrors in the Garden

A few years ago we built a potting area behind our garage and we wanted to hide it so that nobody could see it from our patio. I had been walking through a very upscale neighborhood near my work and noticed that in one of the yards that the professional landscapers had put a mirror in an entrance. It seamlessly created the illusion of a very long garden. I thought that maybe we could do something like that to hide our potting area and went home and got an old mirror that used to be over our living room fireplace out of the basement. It fit perfectly and after installing it gave a great feeling of depth to the garden and successfully hid our potting area.  It also gave that perfect background for our climbing rose and made it look more substantial. To our surprise, we found that the mirror really never needed cleaning – the rain seemed to do the job. We just made sure to protect the back of the mirror so that the silver would not wear or get scraped off by some raccoon trying to climb it.

One thing we decided to do with our mirror was to protect the back of it from the elements by applying a spray marine varnish. Not sure if it was needed, but it hasn’t faded at all in the few years that it has been installed in the garden. We also put a lattice backing on it so that it wouldn’t easily get scratched.

Another area that you could use a mirror is a fence where you want to give the illusion of depth, or a façade entry into your neighbor's yard. Dust off those old mirrors you have in your basement, or go to a salvage store and buy an old mirror and be creative – you will like the results…