Garden Jewelry

Garden Jewelry

Imagine this, if you will: You have just been invited to go to an exclusive A Birdbath Planter. Photo Courtesy of Arnetta Mann-Brinkman. benefit dinner for a famous personality. You run out, buy a new designer dress. You have your hair and makeup done. You have a manicure and a pedicure, you do everything to get ready. Finally, you look in the mirror. It is not quite pulled together. Suddenly, a little bell goes off in your head...Jewelry! That's what's missing! So, you go out, and if you still have a few bucks to burn, you buy some fabulous accessories to wear, or you rent the really good stuff from a jeweler for the evening. Now your look is pulled together.

Gardens are the same. You can have the most ordered, meticulous garden full of wonderful and rare plants, all coordinated, and unless you do just a little more decorating, it will not look complete.

It used to be that if you mentioned "yard ornaments", visions of tacky pink flamingoes and even tackier lawn jockeys would come to mind. For a while, it seemed as if most folks shied away from the use of accessories because so much of it was so awful to begin with. Now that has all changed. Wonderful garden ornaments are coming in vogue again, and they can help to pull your garden together. These decorations help to inject some of your personality onto the scene and can help transform your gardens into something truly special and unique.

Here, a little can go a long way. A birdhouse here, a birdbath there, add a garden bench, some stepping stones...you get the idea.

There are wonderful materials to choose from, too. You need not limit yourself to concrete. There are items made of resins and polymers that resist the weather, there are copper plated figures that gradually attain a wonderful "aged" patina, there is wood, there is so much out there to choose from!

Two of my favorite items are a little terra cotta frog and a little terra cotta turtle that I have beneath some hostas near a rhododendron near my front entrance. They have become moss covered over the years, and are unobtrusive. I paid under $10 for the pair, and they are some of the best ornaments I have in my yard. They only become apparent if someone is really studying that particular area. Then they become a pleasant surprise. This is another element that yard ornaments can help to do, which is to evoke a sense of surprise and whimsy.

But just like you want to look your tasteful best when you go to a really important event, you shouldn't overdo it. We have all seen yards where everything from pinwheels to wishing wells is tossed onto the scene. To me, it looks like the yard has become a showcase for accessories, and the gardens have taken a backseat. It looks busy, and just plain bad.

Yet if done with good taste, adorning your gardens with these little pieces of "jewlry" will inject a bit of your own personality into a garden. Gazing globes, small statues, bubbling fountains all help to tie the scene together and provide a bit of personality to the garden.

You can find many of these items via mail order or on the internet. Local retailers are stocking more and more items, from preformed ponds and fountains to tiny stone mushrooms. Have a few of them positioned to be seen right away, but tuck of few of them to peak out at your guests from beneath a leaf or two. Whatever you do, please try to add a few non-plant elements to your garden palette. you will be surprised at how even a simple garden bench can transform your garden into something really special!