All that glistens in this garden is glass

It would be an unusual backyard anywhere — especially, perhaps, among the cornfields and tall grasses of Nebraska.

When Michele Semin wanted to replace an aging swimming pool behind her rural-suburban home, she gave her high school friend Chris Murphy, a designer for nearly 30 years, permission to go wild. Be inventive.

And so he did.

Bands of brightly colored glass now flow like an undulating stream from Semin’s forest-green house toward the wooded back expanse of her three-acre yard. The colored bands cover about 3,000 square feet and are broken up by islands of white river rocks — some meticulously laid — on which lounge furniture, potted flowers and even a bright red metal sculpture perch.

It’s Semin’s idea of heaven.

The Lincoln, Neb., radiologist works long days, often in a dark, windowless room. When she returns home, she’s greeted by her three dogs and, out back, a riot of color.

“I come outside and the vibrant colors and the dogs are around me,” she muses. “It’s like meditation. It’s peaceful.”

“It’s gorgeous when the glass is slightly damp,” Semin adds. “It shimmers like sugar on a cookie.”

Murphy, of Christopher Murphy Designs in Tulsa, Okla., says Semin likes vibrant, abstract and symbolic artwork, and he wanted to incorporate those elements into her garden. The swirls of colored glass, he says, evoke the work of Emilio Pucci, the 20th century Italian designer whose fashionable prints swirled with bold, geometric patterns.

But why colored glass?

Murphy says the garden plan came to him in a dream. “I have always dreamed in 3-D,” he says.

The garden’s colorful curves symbolize ocean waves, but also waves of energy and even the “waves of grain” familiar to this Midwestern environment.

“We took a pool out that could have waves in it, in theory, and replaced it with a hard wave,” Murphy says.

Semin, 45, says her dogs can run across the glass garden, and she can walk on it barefoot. The recycled glass has been tumbled, so there are no rough edges.

“It doesn’t cut; it’s all smooth; it’s just a little prickly,” says Semin. “It’s not any different from walking on pebbles.”

Of course, this garden is not for everyone. For starters, although Semin didn’t want to share how much her garden cost, everyone involved says it was a costly undertaking. Twenty-eight-thousand pounds of tumbled glass — in 50-pound bags — doesn’t come cheap, nor does almost 10,000 pounds of white river rocks, or the labor costs associated with installing them.

“At one point, I had so many bags of rocks and glass stacked up around my house,” Semin says. “My neighbors must have thought I was crazy; they probably still do.”

Plants were brought in to soften the look, and a porch that overlooks the garden was rebuilt. A large fountain and the red sculpture break up the lines, and add interest and vertical forms.

The project took six months and was finished last October. LuAnn Finke of Finke Gardens and Nursery in Lincoln, Neb., says the ground needed to be filled in and leveled, then heavy-duty landscaping fabric was installed — not only to deter weeds but to keep the glass and rocks from sinking into the soil.

Metal landscaping edging subtly separates the glass colors and helps make the design “pop.”

“In some ways, the edging underscores (the garden) like a child’s drawing edged in black,” says Finke.

A landscape designer, Finke is more accustomed to working with plants, and her team installed plenty of perennials: ornamental grasses, cascading white roses and spring-blooming bulbs, in particular. Moneywort covers the ground nearest the glass garden.

In its first year, Semin says, the garden has required little maintenance. She puts pieces of errant glass back where they belong and pulls an occasional weed. Rains soak through the glass, and strong winds have, so far, blown leaves and debris off it.

Murphy says his friend may have to “fluff” the glass garden with a straw broom on occasion, but “it’s very soothing to go back and smooth it, rake it, like a Japanese rock garden,” he says.

Homeowners wary of a project this size might incorporate tumbled, colored glass in their landscaping on a smaller scale — anywhere one would install rocks or mulch, says Murphy.

Corbin Layton, sales manager for American Specialty Glass in Salt Lake City, which provided the glass for this project, suggests livening up a flower bed with glass or adding it to a water feature.

“It has a lot of appeal to people wanting to make a small change to their yards,” he says. “It makes a huge difference.”

Semin says her garden shines in every season. After a snowfall, the glass heats up before surrounding terrain does, melting snow at staggered rates: The dark glass absorbs more light, so melts through first. It gives the winter landscape a burst of color.

“When all the rest of the world around you is gray and dark, this color starts to break through,” says Semin.

The garden is lighted at night, too.

“It’s so dark in the country,” says Murphy. “To have this light makes this (garden) come alive at night. (The glass) sparkles like stars.”