Right now the only decorative item in my potager (which is brand new this year) is an urn with some petunias. Boring, I know! LOL We plan to replace it with an armillary on a stand though, which will be right in the center of the garden. We like the ones from Williamsburg Marketplace a lot.

Well, so far I have a birdbath, a rabbit statue, a little hedgehog, some antique-looking metal ladybugs and butterflies, hopscotch stepping stones, a tic-tac-toe game, an arbor with two benches, black metal arches with gates in two locations, two metal black oblelisks on either side of an old wooden bench, and probably a few other things I've forgotten! LOL

This is the same garden I'm using for my nieces and nephews, so it's got some beds around the arbor with benches, four little beds (3' x 5') for the Peter Rabbit Potager (as we're calling it) and a long oval bed with the birdbath in the middle. The perimeter beds are mostly for fruits and perennials, but it does have a lot more stuff tucked in for the kids than most potagers probably would :)

Lavender, still no pics? You're such a tease. ;)

Right now I have a large planter with an armillary tuteur in it. I will be putting at least one obelisk for pole beans in one bed, too. I also have a "Potting Shed" sign that will go on the building to which the potager is adjacent. I also have a large birdhouse that I plan to put on one tall fence post. My potager is tiny, so there isn't room for a whole lot. The design itself is intended to be decorative. I was at Marshall's/HomeGoods today and came close to buying some ceramic birdhouses for the other posts, but I decided to wait. They were adorable--each slightly different with "Peace", "Hope", "Faith" and "Love" on them.

Lisa

I love throwing random objects into my garden, it's pretty much an addiction. Right now, I've got a windmill (8' tall green and yellow thing), gazing globes, windchimes, a bazillion metal chickens of various shapes, sizes and designs, blown-glass flowers (from Etsy.com), birdhouses (also from Etsy), mobiles, metal stars hung on the fence, a tiny red wagon planted with greens, a wooden bench, a couple of obelisks, stepping stones and more glazed cobalt pots than I can count. It's getting to the point that I don't have any room to plant stuff.

This is a terrific thread! I really want to figure out what objects to put on my 5 ft. tall posts. Birdhouses is a good idea. I was thinking, maybe ribbon streamers of bright colors, that the wind can activate. My potager isn't huge, so I don't have room for sculptures and objects in the beds or aisles. I wish I had room for a comfy chair, though. I need breaks from planting!

Carol

Natal- I'll post pics as soon as I get my roses, fruit trees and fence in...probably in the next 3 or 4 weeks. For now, I like being a tease. (LOL)

I think I still need more stuff in the fairy garden, but I want it to be cute for the girls...not too over the top...I say this after all the stuff I just listed in the potager :)

lavender- your garden evolution would probably make a great book! Snap lots of befores, durings and afters. You never know. The New Lavender Potager or something snappy for a title.

I have a couple of oversize resin finials and two urns at the entrance. I have a birdbath outside the fence, and a small saucer with pebbles and water, hopefully for butterflies.

But, right now, as I said in a previous post, my poor garden needs some rebuilding. We had high winds that really did a number on my garden. Plus, I have to finish the beds in the hop yard and mulch the paths. I was hoping everything would be done by beginning of May. Maybe end of May now...

What a great range of ideas in these posts - there is so much creativity going on in the gardens of this forum, it's inspiring.

This weekend I put in an old weathered copper "windmill on a pole" - 3 feet tall - with a little horse in the middle (I am a farmer at heart). I set my bronze bunny (Benjamin) at the entrance in the tomato bed. And I put a little hanging bird feeder at the entrance on the other side.
I am hoping to put a pretty hummingbird feeder near some flowers that attract them (maybe our mandarin honeysuckle vines on the fence).
I do have a nice cement birdbath but as of now am unsure where to put it.
My son helped me finish putting in the pea gravel in the sitting area yesterday (a great Mother's Day present), and the two cobalt blue chairs are there now. I am hoping to find a nice little sign to hang there about "rest" or "peace" or something appropriate, for what is supposed to happen there!

Does anyone have a sundial? One of my nephews has said he thinks we need that in the garden :) If I get one, it's going to have to be on the small size, but it would be a fun addition in the middle of the four small beds (Peter Rabbit potager part).

Ali-b, What a fun idea. I don't know about a book, but even a picture album would be entertaining...especially with all my moving things around LOL.

Sorry to read about your garden getting blown over in places by the wind. Maybe this will give you a chance to make a few small changes and have an even more beautiful garden :)

Chickadee- Windmill on a pole sounds like a neat idea. The cement birdbath is a nice feature, but I try to put mine in with the flowers that I'm not going to eat, just in case the water gets a little too dirty. I love seating in the garden!

lavender lass - a sundial would be so nice...a classic place would be where two paths cross...close to if not in the center of the potager. Hmmm....got me thinking now!

A Peter Rabbit potager sounds like such fun. I am envious!
Also the fairy garden. I love that movie too!

Good point about the birdbath - I think I'll put it near a little walk well outside the potager.

Also - right now we have chickadees nesting on the edge of the potager - and there is a nest full of eggs, so I am eagerly awaiting the sound of little chirps.

Oh, you're so lucky to have little chickadees! I think they're so cute.

The "Peter Rabbit" potager is just a little mini-potager within the bigger garden. It's for the mini-veggies for the kids and I think a little sundial would fit right in.

There's not enough room in the fairy garden for any fruit trees, so we may have another little fairy-type garden under the dwarf fruit trees. A nice place for some short blueberry bushes, strawberries and a few fairy roses. This may also be a better place to put the hopscotch stones...which my mom is painting for me! She's much more talented when it comes to painting and I'm just glad she wants to do it :)

Wow, I want to see photos of all these gardens!

I love garden art, as much or maybe more than the plants. I like it all over the place. I have hopscotch stones in a little side garden that runs along the covered porch. I LOVE them!

I like the potager to be especially fun and colorful. I have a orange glass pumpkin that's on a post. I had to put it in the corner right up against the fence so I could secure it. Otherwise it might blow over since it was 'top heavy.' I found a neat blue metal wagon thing that someone had atached a tall post to. I'm going to put a galvanized tub on the flat part of the wagon and pot it up.

I also will take small things and pot them up and then place them right down on the ground amongst the veggies.

The typical ceramic flowers on stakes.

I have a cool twig trellis with colorful stones wired onto it. I bought it without really knowing where it'd go. Maybe I should put that into the veggie garden as well. Or at least until I find a spot for it.

I hope to get things cleaned up and post pictures, but in the meantime, would love to see photos of everyone else's!

Okay, here are some photos of some of my garden art. None of these are in the potager. But I thought I'd post them because it sounds like you guys are all like me and love to see this stuff!

Here are my hopscotch stones. I tried to plant thyme and other 'steppables' among them but all that died. Any ideas what might live here? It's shady (some filtered sun) and sandy, since the stones are set in sand.

This is an old wooden wheelbarrow I planted up last year with different lettuces, pansies and allysum. I have it replanted for this year but so far nothing has really taken off. I just loved this - it was one of my favorite things in the garden last year.

I found this adorable wooden swing in an antique store. HAD to have it! (Can you tell from the above stones and now this that I adore all things 'children'?) It hangs from one of the apple trees.

This is a little garden area next to my greenhouse and where an outdoor potting bench is located. It gets quite hot here during part of the day but the part with the white bench is more shaded. I decided to make this my red and white garden since I normally don't put a lot of red in my gardens but wanted a place to put the red plants that I did want. This area is currently completely overgrown with grass and buttercup. I have to get out there and clean it up and then put down something to keep those weeds away!

Last but not least, here is Squiggy. I still am deciding where to put him so he isn't secured down into the ground yet. And I want to plant some stuff around him to set him off. Still working on all that....
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Okay, I've shown you mine, now you show me yours! :)

Wow, you've got some incredible garden art! I love the hopscotch stones...especially number 2 with the rabbits :)

Thanks for the great ideas! I'm going to print off the hopscotch picture to show my mom. Maybe it would be better with Peter Rabbit and the tic-tac-toe can go in the little fairy area.

Wow! Gwen, I love it all! Squiggy made me laugh, too. Very cool. Thanks for sharing!

Lisa

Ok, well now I'm embarrassed to show my stuff. lol. Squiggy is very neat. Actually it's all very neat. Thanks for sharing!

Where, oh where did you get those hopscotch stones? They are GORGEOUS!

Lavendar Lass, I would love to see a pic of your tic tac toe!

Ali-B - do not be embarrassed! Those are my prize pieces from a lifetime of collecting. I have tons of 'little' stuff too. I think it all looks good once you put it out among plants.

When I go on garden tours, I always take photos of the garden art because I love it so much.

Joellen, I got it at a home and garden store in Pt Townsend, Washington. I'm embarrassed to say how much it cost. Let's just say it was outrageous. I spent over a year searching the internet to see if I could find something similar or find the artist to buy direct. I knew she was in Oregon but that's all I knew. The store that sells them guards her identity! LOL After a year of thinking about them, I finally just went over and bought them. (Let's hope my husband never walks into that store [totally not likely] and sees how much they cost!) Then they sat in the greenhouse for at least 6 months before I got them into the ground. I've had them for a couple years and am still waiting for a little girl to come over and skip down them!

I was in a friend's garden and was telling her about the stones and lo and behold, she had a set! They were hidden under long grass. LOL Her husband had bought them for her! (I am very impressed with him now!)

Squiggy I got in a nursery in Tuscon, Arizona. It took every bit of ingenuity on my part to fit him into the rental car. After about 45 minutes of me and the owner trying, we had to give up and admit he wouldn't fit and I left. I was a couple blocks away when I had an inspiration on how to make him fit. I did a quick u-turn and raced back. I think I saw the owner grimace when I drove up. But we got him in and the rest is history. A couple of his tailfeather broke off and I had to find someone to weld them back on for me. I've had him over 3 years and you can see he still isn't 'installed.'

I have been Googling all day looking for anything resembling those Hopscotch stones, and no luck. Usually I am the queen of Google, and friends come to me to find things online. So you have quite the find there. If I am ever in Washington, I may email you for the name of the store. ;) I have a little girl here (two) who would love to play on them!

Joellen, I spent so many hours googling for those, it's not even funny. Maybe with bing out now, you'd have better luck. My guess is that the artist does not have a website or any web presence at all. Which considering her talent strikes me as odd. However, they are definitely too heavy to mail anywhere, so perhaps that's one of the reasons.

One of my friends found them for me! http://jordanwoodblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/hopscotch-stepping-stones.html

A phone call and email revealed that there are only two sets left, and they are selling for $550 plus shipping, which he said would be very expensive. YIKES.

My next mission is to figure out how to make them myself.

Joellen- If you figure it out, please let me know :)

I'd love to have something like that in the garden, but I don't think I'm nearly creative enough to pull it off. I'll probably stick with my patio stones and some cement paint. LOL

It does give me some good ideas of how to decorate the stones, though. Thanks, Gwen!

I wonder if someone on the hypertufa forum would have some ideas on how to make the hopscotch stones....

I wonder if that store just started carrying them. Cuz it sure didn't show up in any of the searches I did. Not that it would have mattered. It's just like the store I bought them from. I wanted to find that Oregon sculptor and buy directly from her at a lesser price. Or find something similar at a fraction of the price!

But your friend is very good at internet searching!!!

gwenb - those hopscotch stones are to die for! And the baby swing is just adorable. Great style.

Here are a few of my garden accessories:

A two-person glider:

Mr. Rabbit, who's full of personality:

And these little hose guards placed in the corners of our quadrants.

The garden is ever changing - an extension of the inside just waiting to be fiddled with. :)

I have been admiring your garden all along, but these touches are wonderful.

Are you in the Blue Ridge Mountains? The scenery in your photos is beautiful, much like the Berkshire Hills in Massachusetts where I grew up.

P.S. - I want that glider! :)

I found these. Not quite the same, but they sound like they might be nice (it sounds like the verses are on the stones). If you're just looking for the numbers, there are some resin ones on line for under $100.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hopscotch Stepping Stones

Lulabelle - We have that glider! Yours is nice and clean. Ours is a mess from being left out. We've had it for eons. Got it from Restoration Hardware the first year they brought them out. I got it for me - I mean, my husband for Father's Day.

Where did you get the hopscotch stepping stones? I have been looking for these ever since we saw them at the Oregon Garden! Thanks!!