This hanging is on my deck...
A bench or chair or other destination can make a great garden ornament. So can a statue. If you have something like a path through your property, you can put a seating space at the end and give yourself a rest in your wanderings.
A couple of summers ago I visited some famous English gardens, many of them designed by William Kent, whom I had studied in a garden history class. The designers of the big estates liked to arrange objects so that you’d see one and walk toward it. By the time you got there, another interesting object was in view, so you’d walk that way, and so on through a circuit of the gardens. Of course, lots of them designed for large landowners, with plenty of pounds, so the ‘objects’ tended to be Roman ruins (fake) or summer houses. But we can use the same principle for paths that run through more modest gardens. And the same principle applies of approaching one object or area of interest and then having the eye drawn to another, as a way of moving people through the landscape.
It’s hard to write about ornaments without more pictures, so I’m going to see if I can upload some onto the bottom of our gardening page. But what I thought I’d do is sort them into some categories so you can think about what you like. I’d also very much invite you to post pictures of your garden delights: I remember in particular the plants growing in an old bra as a favorite.
By the way, this is a good time of year to get ornaments, since lots of the vendors have sales on now. I’ve bought a nice copper fountain on sale from Smith and Hawken at this time of year, and I know Gardeners Supply has them too. Hey, even Target should have some deals. But probably the best sources for really funky ornaments are yard sales, salvage places, antique stores, and your own garage.
One thing I really like in gardens is mirrors. Especially if you have a small, city or suburban garden surrounded by a fence, you can make it seem so much bigger with a mirror. Get old windows from a junk store and have the panes replaced with mirrored glass (or if you’re really clever, figure out how to silver the backs of the existing panes). You can put them on your fence and they’ll be just fine there.
I like tuteurs too, especially to give some height to a low border. A tuteur is a four sided structure, usually pyramidal in shape, with some lattice or trellis to help plants to grow up it. You can make them (or buy them) by getting tomato cages, inverting them, and winding attractive wire or willow through them. You could probably do the same thing with sturdy flexible branches . They’re nice in pots, too, so you can train (tutor) vines to grow up and give height on a deck.
I’ve also seen obelisks (like a tuteur but without the lattice going up the side) that are really nice for adding height, and I’ve seen them with attached little birdbaths, which is cute.
And how about gnomes or little concrete critters for the garden? Garden gnomes are a favorite in France, where in 2000 there was a show of 2000 gnomes in the Jardins de Bagatelle in the Bois du Boulogne. For a while, gnomes became an object of snobbery in Paris, with people vying for the newest – or the oldest – gnomes. A “Gnome Liberation Front” even struck the event, stealing about 20 of the gnomes in one night, demanding that they be released into their natural habitat. The gnomes, if you’ve never seen one, are little men with conical red hats and beards, found in various natural occupations such as sitting on a mushroom or doing garden work. If you use an image search you won’t be disappointed. (Vous ne serez pas desolé.)
Gorgeous big pots in the garden are also nice. I like to use bright colors planted in annuals in spaces in the garden where most of the summer is mostly green. I have a turquoise pot that’s about 3’ tall that I’ve got a pink hibiscus in. It’s gorgeous, surrounded by a Purple Leaf Sand Cherry and a Purple Smokebush and right in front of a climbing rose that I can seem to get rid of that only blooms early in the season.
Lights are fun too. I’m too busy (lazy? Cheap?) to be bothered doing low voltage lighting, so I use solar cell lights by my path. I also got a terrific bird feeder that has solar cells on top, so it lights up at night. By day it’s the malt shop for sparrows and cardinals; by night it glows. But if you have the time/money/expertise to do low voltage lighting, that’s a really nice option for highlighting your favorite plants and helping people find their way through the garden.
On my deck I like to hang interesting geometric wall hangings. The picture at the top of the page is one I picked up in an antique shop in Asheville, NC when I was visiting a friend there last year. It hangs on the side of my house, by my deck, and you can see it from the street (ok, the alley) and as you walk up the path from the garage to the house. I think it adds a nice focal point.
How about statues in the garden? Lots of people I know like to include St. Francis, and of course there are all sorts of classical images you can use. And birdbaths and fountains are also very nice, and more than just decorative. I love the sound of water in the garden, and birds love its presence.
Now it’s your turn. Send us pictures and text about your favorite garden ornaments. We’re all so spread out, there’s no reason not to borrow from each other.
Would you be interested if I wrote some about rain barrels and composting?
posted by CommunityGal
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