Garden Art

10 years ago

Let`s share some garden art pictures. It is 45 degrees here today and I plan to check out my garden. Maybe make some notes on plans for spring. I would love to see your art, garden structures, sitting venues...whatever you might like to share. Lesley

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Comments (23)

lesmc
Original Author
10 years ago
My garden surround of wine bottles...all of which I personally consumed! I call it the bed of wine and roses! Lesley
lesmc
Original Author
10 years ago
A favorite birdhouse ... a gift from my sister in S.C. ! It always has birds!! Lesley
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Just a little hint... you can assemble something like this just with acid sulfur. Sand of the varnish or the sealant from the objects and coat them with the acid. You can follow the process of rusting! :-)
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Greg: I love your ladder! What combos. Aren't you in Corona, CA? Since I'm only a hop, skip or jump away, I'd love to come over some weekend and drool over your plants. Can we set something up? For others interested in my tower, i was running out of space so I had the idea to go up. I have a small backyard with dogs so I don't have many plants in the back. I used a 4 foot piece of rebar picked up at the local Home Depot for under $4, & pounded it an inch or so in the dirt in the path next to my walkway. Used a big clay pot on the bottom, ( they are all clay pots) as the base, just pushed the pot down to the bottom of the rebar. The next pot, and all subsequent ones, I pushed the pot down the rebar and then leaned it to the right on top of the bottom pot, resting it on the edge. The next pot, pushed it through the hole down the pole so to speak and rested it on the left edge and so on until the top pot which ended up on the right. The tip of the rebar is barely visible to the left of the top pot. The biggest challenge was trying to figure out which succulents to use. I wanted to use two colors, purple and green. I tried to use some that were trailing, some that are short and squat and some that grow higher upright. I had to really pack the soil down hard so the plants would not fall out until they are really established. Finally covered the soil with shells and sea glass. They obviously need to be watered from the top down, sort of slowly so as to not lose any soil. I've included a picture of the whole tower. We have a lot of walkers on my street and when people stop to comment, they think the rebar is bent. For some, it's hard to convince otherwise. My next one will not be tilted pots. I'm going to just stack them and use succulents around the outside of each ring. If anyone else has done this, I'd like to see what plants you have used. Enjoy!
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Y'all are so sweet. My goodness and what cool photos! I love putting old stuff in my garden. Its a container garden in a little fenced in courtyard. I have old tarnished silver oval platters hung on the wall like mirrors, and I buy old salt and pepper shakers for cheap at antique or thrift stores or on vacation and put a wooden skewer with a paint chip stapled to it in one of the holes and use them as plant markers (Go Sharpie!). They're nifty and some can become pretty cool little garden statues with a purpose. And they're two for one technically! Plus they're cuter than plastic sticks and gives you something to do with all those pretty, colorful (and often waterproof) paint chips you have leftover from that one project. I think putting different items in your garden or among your plants is kind of like jewelry for your garden. Gives it character and makes it fun to look at while you're waiting patiently (or not so patiently...)for the seedlings to really fill in and become plants. Like the post Marcia! Thanks, Sarah
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Linelle - I don't eat fish (I have, but I prefer not to). I don't like to even wade in waters where they swim for fear of touching them. I have, at times, been so startled by an unexpected photo of a fish when turning the page in a magazine that I have actually thrown the magazine across the room - just an automatic response. I can't pinpoint the exact moment when this fear came on, but I was pretty small. I do remember being in a pet store when I was maybe four or five years old, and running my hand along a table full of sale items. My hand stopped on something that felt odd, and when I looked to see what it was, it was a dried-out, dead fish. Horrifying! I believe I started having fish dreams not too long after that. I'd wake up screaming in the night, certain that a fish was in the bed with me. My poor mom, being awakened at dark-thirty and having to quell the unreasonable fears of a very insistent little girl! When I was a tween, I used to like to go fishing with my grandfather when I visited my grandparents' lake house in the summer. He would bait the hook for me and take any fish I caught off the hook, and I thought it was great fun. I guess I wasn't horribly phobic at that time. One day he and I went fishing out in his boat. I caught 17 fish, and we took them home with us. My grandmother deemed them too small to fix for our dinner, so she decided to make a sort of stew out of them for the dog. She put them in a pressure cooker (I have no idea why), thinking they were all dead. Something happened and once the thing heated up, we heard hideous thrashing inside the pot. After awhile it stopped, but when she lifted the lid, there was a nasty film on top and a few eyeballs floating around. Again - horrifying stuff. The dog ate it up though. Once I told a boy in high school about my phobia, and shortly thereafter I opened my locker to find a huge dead fish inside. The boy thought that was just the funniest practical joke ever, and chased me up and down the halls holding it by the tail. I remember trying desperately to keep my cool and not show how agitated I was, but I fought not to burst into tears - or pass out. (I know this is getting to be way too long ...) A few years ago I decided that I wanted to overcome my phobia once and for all and actually sought counseling for it. I also tried to do a bit of immersion work on my own, and DH and I went to a local aquarium one afternoon. It's long been difficult for me to even get close to a fish, in any manner - even those behind glass. The salt water aquariums didn't bother me terribly; after all, those fish are often beautifully colored or comical looking. The freshwater tanks, however, caused me to panic. I forced myself to remain seated next to one that was built low to the ground with glass walls, with the various lake-living fish swimming right up to me on all sides and behind me. I couldn't do it. I sat there and just bawled and hyperventilated, and DH got me the hell out of there. Around that time we were traveling regularly to Mexico, and scuba diving was very popular where we stayed. In spite of my fish phobia, it sounded like a lot of fun, and I went so far as to take a few scuba lessons here, but did not go on to be certified. I didn't like the feeling of breathing underwater and couldn't get past a feeling of simmering panic. I know I wouldn't have made certification anyway - at least not with the instructor I had - as his group went to a local man-made lake to receive their certification, and the waters were often murky and always filled with curious fish. Pretty sure that seeing something like this would have induced dangerous panic in me! Gosh, I am sorry to have told you more than you ever wanted to know. I've not been asked about this in a long time, and I guess my memories just came flooding back!
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lesmc
Original Author
10 years ago
My gazebo...the starting place of my garden. Everything was planted around this peaceful resting place. I just love to rock the swing, listen to the birds and smell my roses! Lesley
lesmc
Original Author
10 years ago
This sun glass stake was also a gift from my sister..it is a real favorite of mine. I have made stained glass but after a nasty cut...I gave it up! lesley
lesmc
Original Author
10 years ago
Every garden must have gazing balls! I have several..but I especially love blue ones. I feel they set off the colors in the flowers so well. Lesley
lesmc
Original Author
10 years ago
Last picture for now...I must let someone else share! This is a favorite resting place. Although, resting is seldom done!! Maybe I should say 'my evaluation station"! Thanks for looking. Lesley
surya55_gw
10 years ago
Leslie- you have the garden of MY dreams! I've always believed in mixing all colors up- it makes for an interesting look and makes every flower show off nicely against each other. Lots of color-popping this way.The garden art is exquisite. Thanks so much for posting. I've enjoyed it all.
pat_bamaz7
10 years ago
Lesley,
I'm really enjoying all the glimpses of your garden and love your art throughout!

The birdhouse my husband made for me is a favorite of mine:

And I love my bottle tree, but IÃ¢ÂÂm only finding a pic showing the top of it:

My very favorite is just a big rock with a story behind it that I will spare you. It is special because of the way it came to me, so I donÃ¢ÂÂt plant anything around it that might block it from view. I do decorate it for each season. HereÃ¢ÂÂs a picture of it with a headless horseman I made to sit on top for Halloween. For Christmas, Santa sits on it with lighted reindeer in front, and so on...
lesmc
Original Author
10 years ago
Great rock,Pat. Love the idea of decorating it for holidays.And the birdhouse is great. I welcome the birds into my garden..they often leave me flower surprises!Could you name the red rose in your bottle tree picture. It`s beautiful. I would like a bottle tree with blue bottles.Love blue in the garden.Thank you surya, for your kind words. Feel free to post your garden. Everyones pictures are such fun during these cold days. Lesley
pat_bamaz7
10 years ago
Lesley, Such beautiful lilies in all your photos. I really must add more lilies to my garden! ThatÃ¢ÂÂs VeteranÃ¢ÂÂs Honor in my bottle tree picture. Here, it is a rather tall and narrow bush with the most beautiful and very long lasting red roses that never Ã¢ÂÂblueÃ¢ÂÂ as they ageÃ¢ÂÂ¦not much fragrance and very bad to blackspot in my garden, though.
dublinbay z6 (KS)
10 years ago
I don't have a lot of garden decorations, but I do try to get some stonelike things in the garden as a contrast to the green growing things. Unfortuntately, none of these are particularly good pics. : (

My welcoming gardening dwarf at the entrance of my garden:

Fairy statue next to "The Fairy". (I have a couple more little fairies and a small dwarf, but no pics of them.)

Another gardening fairy inspecting the purple pansies:

Stone bench--on which I do rest and contemplate my flowers. I also have a park bench on the other side of the garden--but no pic.

This picture is several years old--the Home Run hedge is much bigger and fuller now--but I still use that left-over birdbath as a plant holder.
{{gwi:300146}}

Here's my solar-operating fountain.

Buff Beauty with a gargoyle guard dog at its feet--except someone stole the gargoyle last summer! Now there is a cute turtle at its feet (no pic). So far no one has stolen the guard turtle.
{{gwi:207539}}

Petunia in painted concrete planter--I stick a few annuals in these small planters and scatter them around the gardens--just for some variety of textures.

Sandstone rock to right of Memoire--I have several of those scattered around the gardens.

Now if you want to go next door--my neighbor has tons of arts and crafts garden decorations in her gardens. I think she sometimes looks down on me for spending more time on growing plants and less on garden decorations. : )

Kate
redwolfdoc_z5
10 years ago
What a great post! Thanks Lesley!

It's funny, but I don't have a lot of pictures of my garden art. I'll have to rectify that this year!

Lesley, love the 'wine and roses' bed. Kate, those fairies are beautiful! They look perfect among the roses. Pat, I love the rock... Especially because it has a history.

Until I had a house, I really had no idea that I was so domestic, and one of the bigger surprises is that I love garden statuary!

Got the zebra at a warehouse sale. It spent its first year in my little girl's nursery. Now the kids pretend to ride it.
{{gwi:1198068}}

Sorry for the blurry picture and the mostly-empty hosta bed... for some reason, this is the only shot I have of the giraffe! It was a gift for my 40th last summer.
{{gwi:1198069}}

Damselfly
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There's also a little ceramic mushroom bed with a few tiny gnomes among the stalks. Can't seem to find a picture. Nor can I find a picture of the lovely bright yellow ceramic birdbath my hubby gave me a few years ago. It has abstract red roses embedded in the design. As it happens, it's a terrible birdbath - unappealing to the birds while the yellow attracts wasps like there's no tomorrow! This year I'm going to get DH to mount it on the shed as pure decoration.

Oh, and the kids like to grab tree branches when available and follow me around, pretending to be garden statues whenever I turn around... :)
{{gwi:1198071}}
{{gwi:1198073}}

Karen
seil zone 6b MI
10 years ago
I love garden art! I have several pieces but for some reason rarely photograph them. This is my fairy sprinkler though.
lesmc
Original Author
10 years ago
Karen...What adorable garden helpers you have!! I really love to see children enjoying the garden. I never gave a thought to the color yellow attracting wasps! I must remember that.Your zebra looks quite at home in your host bed. Thanks for sharing. Seil, love the fairy sprinkler.That is a lovely lilly growing there,also. Lesley
redwolfdoc_z5
10 years ago
Lesley, aeons ago I went to Vietnam to do some field research as part of my degree. One of the other students on the trip was cataloging wasps and bees. We spent a whole day setting out bright yellow plastic bowls filled with sugar water all around her study area as wasp traps. Three days later we went back out to the site to gather the catch -- and couldn't find a single yellow saucer! It was quite a mystery, until we visited the local village and saw all the children running around wearing plastic yellow "hats"! Adorable, but not really very helpful! Much like my own kids in the garden.... :)

Everyone's garden art is so cheerful. Really fun to see on a cold, snowy winter day like today. I love the fairies! And Lesley, I have no gazing balls but they always stop me in my tracks when I see them in other people's yards. How could they not - they're so colourful and shiny! I wonder why I don't have any?

Karen
lesmc
Original Author
10 years ago
Karen..thanks for the story. Children are so creative and free. who can blame them. Hope you will consider adding a gazing ball to your garden. They are fun to "gaze" in to!This is one from a daylily bed. Not my favorite color, but I love the big size. Lesley
jo_pyeweed (z9 SF Bay Area)
10 years ago
Great post, Lesley. I am enjoying seeing everyone's garden art and wishing I could visit in person.

Here's our garden gargoyle with Geranium pyrenaicum 'Bill Wallis' and an un-named cymbidium. It's been very windy lately so apologies for the blurry pic.

Jo

Edited to correct the spelling: pyrenaicum not pyrenacium

This post was edited by jo_pyeweed on Thu, Feb 6, 14 at 16:16
jo_pyeweed (z9 SF Bay Area)
10 years ago
And a peacock...
nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
10 years ago
Thank you all for sharing a glimpse of the art that resides in your gardens. I sometimes think these little vignettes are a garden's most charming part, while at the same time, revealing a little bit about the gardener, too. I the the angel, birdhouses, fairies, and gazing balls, but best of all are the flowers that surround these objects. And yes, Lesley, you do have a dream garden. Thank you for being so generous in sharing these photos of it and starting this thread. And Pat, that Headless Horseman had me laughing my own head off. What a great use for a favorite object.
Kate, your fairies are perfect among the little spots of colorful flowers. Karen, what a wonderful backyard zoo, cute kids included. Seil, those lovely pink lilies, so sweet, are perfect next to the fairy. Finally, Jo, I have a soft spot for gargoyles--does he have a name? The cymbidium are a dramatic sight to see. Are they difficult to grow? Just beautiful.
Thanks again, everyone. Diane
lesmc
Original Author
10 years ago
Jo, thanks for joining in and sharing your garden. I love the "Bill Wallis". I think the geraniums add so much and blue is my favorite color to compliment the roses. I will look for it. I am ga=ga over your orchid. This has been my winter project to learn to grow them. I am not doing so good!!! A challenge here. Diane,your words are so true.The art adds so much charm to our gardens ,Today, everything is covered in ice. This is one wild winter! Lesley
jo_pyeweed (z9 SF Bay Area)
10 years ago
Diane, Lesley - so glad you enjoyed the yellow cymbidium. It makes a bright, cheery spot in my garden right now.

Diane - Cymbidiums are easy-peasy here because the climactic conditions suit them very well. Foggy springs, cool (and often foggy) summers and mild winters. They are even more outstanding up in San Francisco. Unfortunately, I have heard that they can be a challenge to grow in other places.

This yellow is the only hybrid I have; the others are species and the colors are a very pale pink and white-green. They flower in March/April but it looks like the warm January we have had may cause them to bloom earlier this year.

The gargoyle's name is "Gog" - I was too embarrassed to mention this earlier :-)

Lesley - The Phalanopsis are really easy - if you can give them bright light (early morning sun is great), as high in humidity as you can go and lower day time temperatures in winter than what they received in summer, you should see them bloom quite well. Key is the medium you grow them in. You may need to experiment to determine what works best - bark or moss or a combination of the two. You will have fun - orchids can be addicting so watch out !! :-)

Bill Wallis is a real trooper but I do have to note that he is a prolific reseeder so keep an eye out if you do get him.

Jo

Close-up of yellow cymbidium
lesmc
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks Jo, for your reply. That cymbidium is breath-taking. I also appreciate the warning on re-seeding. I love this forum....everyone is so darn nice. Lesley
nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
10 years ago
Yes, thanks for the info on the gorgeous cymbidium. The close up is beautiful. Our hot, dry weather wouldn't work for this plant--phoo. I knew your gargoyle had to have a name. I just love them. Diane

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