January is the gloomiest month of the year. It’s cold and dark (especially in North East Scotland) and your garden is colourless and lifeless. There is however a solution to this problem. This comes in the form of garden mosaics. Yes I have been on a course!
I visited Maggie at Pretty Rubbish Mosaics near Aboyne (http://www.prettyrubbishmosaics.co.uk/) recently who has a truly inspiring garden which is soon to be featured on the Beechgrove Garden. Even in the depths of winter it is colourful because of all of the mosaics she has made out of recycled materials.
Whilst there I made 2 of my own garden mosaics – an owl and a pussycat. Over the 2 days Maggie took me through each of stages of mosaic making. We used pieces of slate for the basis of the designs. Maggie then taught me how to break up old crockery (she uses recycled materials), shape them and then place them on the slate. Once I was happy with the design I then used cement and PVA glue to stick the design to the slate. It’s important at this stage to say that selected crockery should be frost proof as well as using plenty of cement and glue. My masterpieces were left overnight to dry.
Tuesday was grouting day! If you like making mud pies then you will enjoy this. We mixed up the grout powder with water a plasticizer.
This was then daubed all over the mosaics to fill in the gaps. Any excess was then rubbed off with a toothbrush, piece of newspaper or a cloth. Again it is important to show grout extensively to make sure that no water gets in.
And these are the finished results!