By Marie Hofer, Gardening Editor, HGTV.com
In the garden, art pieces and hardscapes decorate, distract, serve as focal points, surprise, amuse, calm. And today, anything goes. Along with St. Francis and the fleshy young maidens and cherubic children of old, you're as apt to find a 10-foot modern-art piece or an antique long-handled grass-clipper. Garden centers and discount stores are crammed with immobile rabbits, chimineas (clay ovens) and tall latticework, leaving the gardener with the impression that to have focused exclusively on plant material is to have missed half the fun.
"You can even buy rubble," says Bob Hendricks, a landscape designer in Knoxville, Tennessee, reaching for a catalog that sells broken bits of European statuary and chunks of old castles. Hendricks's own garden is cottage style with wildflowers and English roses, but in his day job as owner of Exterior Design Service he is frequently asked to help gardeners site objects that they've fallen in love with but don't know where to put. One such client asked Hendricks's help in placing several Greek columns. "An object or art piece should look very natural in its place," Hendricks says. "It should look like it fits and has a sense of place. For garden pieces that don't fit, I have to find a way to make them look in place. So for the columns, I did plantings that gave the feeling that the columns were aging and had been there for a long time." Aside from antiquity, the columns lend a strong architectural repetitive element.
Sculpture: Fun and Functional
"Sculpture can be both a unifying element and it can also be used to help mark a path," says designer Tim Thoelecke, a Chicago-area landscape designer and president of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. "It helps you create a direction or motion in the landscape. You have a key that you're going in the right direction. If you're walking down a path that curves and you can't see around the bend, the sculpture leads you partway down the path, and then when you get to the curve, another piece can lead you farther. Sometimes the pieces can be matched, but they don't have to be. You can use different urns or pots in the same way."
In the traditional English garden, you expect to see a sculpture (or a birdbath or a tree) in the crossroads of intersecting garden walkways. In small urban gardens, you can also use them as substitutes for screening unsavory views. "Let's say you have a key view of the garden from the house, and you find yourself staring at the neighbor's family room," Thoelecke suggests. "If it's not practical to put up a wall or a fence, you might use a sculptural element with a suitable background of plants to draw the eye down rather than up."
Some Final Tips
Above all, the design of your garden should reflect you, says William Anderson, co-host of HGTV's popular Garden Architecture series. "Rather than thinking you have to, say, put in a colonial garden because the neighborhood is traditional, you can create a garden that's part of your identity--your own nest--just as your interior space is. As long as health and safety are respected, if you can create your fantasy, then more power to you." Here are some other tips for adding art or architectural interest to your garden:
Consider scale. Apportion the right amount of space for the object you want to display, putting it on a pedestal or a wall if you want to increase its importance. "A two-foot statue is obviously not going to look like anything in the middle of an open yard," says Anderson. Experiment--don't be afraid to move elements around until you find the right place. Finding what fits where is a subjective, intuitive process that requires experimentation. "Treat this as an experimental exercise and see if something works or not," Anderson suggests. "Chances are you will find the place for it that is most comfortable to you. In most cases, that idiosyncratic decision is based on gut instinct."
Have its place in mind before you bring an object home. Of course, there's no helping falling in love with a piece that you simply must have, but if there's an opportunity to exercise restraint beforehand, ask: Will the color match existing patio stones or brickwork? Is the style dramatically different from the style of your home or other garden elements? If it is, it can still be well-placed, but you'll have more of a challenge doing it. Decide whether the piece is meant to be a focal point or an accent, and plan your plantings accordingly. For a nook, a small piece can be banked and even partially covered with plants. For one eye-catching bronze artwork that is illuminated at night, however, Hendricks did a simple underplanting of white impatiens against a background of hemlock: "I didn't want to do anything to distract from the beauty of the sculpture." Don't let unsightly wires and cords distract, either. Make sure all are hidden. Trust your instincts. "It's amazing how many people feel comfortable picking out paint and fabric and paintings for their home and then suddenly freeze when it comes to designing their gardens," says Hendricks. "I tell them, 'You know what you like. You know what colors, textures, forms you're drawn to. Trust yourself.'"
Resources
Well Decorated Garden: Making Outdoor Ornaments and Accents
by Dover Doran (ISBN: 1579901069)
Lark Books, (May 1999)
Order this
title.
Smith & Hawken Garden Ornament
by Linda Joan Smith (ISBN: 0761112022 )
Workman Publishing Company, (April 1998)
Order this
title.
garden ornaments
Sculptor Allen Christian
Decorating Your Garden: Inspired Ways to Use Ornamental Objects
by Pat Ross (ISBN: 0783553110)
Time Life, (October 1998)
Order this
title.
Decorating Your Garden
by Jeff Cox (ISBN: 0789202298)
Abbeville Press, Inc., (April 1998)
Order this
title.
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