Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Garden Ornaments

I find that choosing and placing ornaments in a garden is interesting, but rather difficult. There are all sorts of ornaments from the reproductions of formal statuary to decorative scarecrows or urns or pots, all the way to garden gnomes. Some work quite well (that is to say, they improve the garden), but many don't. Why does some ornamentation seem attractive, while other ornamentation doesn't?

Plant supports as ornaments (Government House garden, Victoria B.C.)




First of all, I think in most gardens, ornaments are like jewellery: a little goes a long way. I think also that you have to be able to relate in some personal way to the ornament. For instance, it may something you made yourself or someone close to you made. Perhaps it is something you brought back from a holiday with which you have an emotional connection or something that has a connection with the past in your region or area. A concrete shepherd from the garden center does not cut it, because it has no connection to you.

A connection with the past, a stone grinding wheel


Ornaments must also feel like they belong to your garden. They cannot stick out but must become an integral component of your design. I think ornaments often work well when they become a focal point, when they organize the view by bringing together various unrelated elements. Empty pots or bird baths often work very well that way. From whichever side you see the same pot in the three pictures below, it seems to gather together the various elements around it into a whole and create an attractive picture.

Abkhazi Garden (Victoria B.C.)


I think that pot illustrates what the great American poet Wallace Stevens meant when he wrote:

I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.
The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.


Métis Garden, Québec

The two birdbaths above also work like Stevens' jar. By creating a focal point, they hold together the surrounding plants and create a whole.


Abkhazi Garden, Victoria B.C.
This third birdbath above works on a different scale. It becomes a focal point for the whole clearing that surrounds it. However somehow it does not seem to work quite as well as the previous two. Perhaps the scale is wrong?

A focal point for the whole clearing might need to be slightly larger. What do you think? The bench however provide a beautiful example of the practical being ornamental.

A Buddhist stele

Whimsical ornaments are a class apart as they are meant to make you smile or laugh, and whether you do or you don't has a lot to do with your taste. Garden gnomes fall into that category. I rather like some of the humorous ornaments. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures, but if you do a search for pictures of garden ornaments, you will see that some can be very attractive.


Herb garden, Roche Fleurie
 These two posts in our herb garden above are decorative, but they also organize the space. Each herb is grown in a triangular section divided up by boards sunk in the ground. These triangles, which we don't see in the picture, all radiate from the posts and give them a certain purpose. Ornamentation always works better when it is also functional. The Japanese stone lantern below seems well placed  in part because it could be functional (to light the path next to it).

Government House Garden, Victoria B.C.

I think ornamentation is usually easier to place when it is not given centre stage. As I mentioned above, it works well as a focal point but is much more difficult to integrate into the garden when it is placed front and centre or alone in a prominent spot. This approach can work with very formal objects (as in the picture below), but then the whole area around it becomes a stage for this one ornament and has to be organised as such.

Roche Fleurie Garden



Métis Garden, Québec

As I said before, I think the ideal ornament is also useful.  It is hard to say if the fence above is more useful than decorative. Gates, garden furniture, bird baths, pots, plant supports, mailboxes, even watering cans, can become ornaments as well as being useful. But functionality, even when not readily obvious as in the picture below, helps make sense of the ornamentation. The concrete balls are placed to make sure wheelbarrows or people do not trample the small plants on the edge of the path or hit the pot and so they are not only decorative but functional as well.

Roche Fleurie


 What would you say makes ornamentation work?













23 comments:

  1. I love ornaments in the garden and can't wait for some nicer weather to start adding my collection. I love ornaments that are functional ... bird baths, feeders, old fountain turned into a planter but I also love ones that just add a bit of bling to the garden ... gazing balls, twirlers, glass totems.

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  2. I do not use much ornamentation in my garden apart from a handful of concrete mushrooms that get tucked in here and there. I think you are right that ornamentation works best if it is firmly integrated into the garden. One complements the other. The stand alone pot or birdbath seem lost to me. They are not part of anything. However, that may work for a large piece of sculpture when it is the focal point of interest, and does not necessarily complement the rest of the garden.

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  3. You're right. Some things are just downright tacky.

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  4. Nice to hear you're back. Hope you can find your way through the snow! I'm not sure we do a good job with ornaments, but a short fence I built really does work well. It gives the entire yard a structure, backing up the whole garden.

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  5. Hi! A few years ago we brought back from our trip to Morocco a fountain made with prehistoric fossilized Stone of Erfoud( Morroccon desert). Had it transported to Milan where we drove to pick it up. It now sits as centre stage under the pergola, upon which all my climbig roses will grow. Better than words:
    http://jardin-alsace-vignoble.blogspot.fr/p/blog-page_21.html
    I love ornaments in gardens! This article was a very good idea!

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    1. Martine ta fontaine est tout simplement magnifique. Ce sera encore plus beau lorsque la gloriette sera couverte de roses.

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  6. I solved the problem by carving my own sculptures for the garden. All the books I read when making the garden here said you should only see one ornament at a time, otherwise the eye and therefore the brain, doesn't know what to focus on. All my carvings are nestled in among the planting as focal points, with one being the gate to the pond area, so that is functional as well. It is all very personal though, friends have a garden where there are hundreds of ornaments, It wouldn't suit me, but they love it!

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    1. Decorations you make yourself always have a special meaning. You will have to show us some of your sculptures on your blog some day.

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  7. We looked for ages for a statue of sorts as a focal point in our garden but just couldn't find anything suitable and ended up with a bird bath - another bird bath. I don't like to see ornaments that distract you from the plants or where the garden ends up more like an art gallery.

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  8. This is a great essay, Alain. It looks to me as though ornaments, being human artifacts, help to invite humans into the mysterious world of plants -- it's like, okay, maybe we don't understand plants, but they don't mind us being here either.

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    1. I think you are right. I expect some man-made artifacts might make it easier to relate to the natural world.

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  9. A good, thoughtful post. I think you lay out a useful framework for thinking about garden ornaments. It can be a challenge to find things that are personal and not mass produced.

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  10. I think it's all about contrast and variances in height and texture. :-)

    Greetings from Minneapolis!

    Pearl

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  11. Tricky question, Alain. I agree, less is more and a little goes a long way. It's important to keep style and scale in mind. A lot of it is about taste - I always say some have good taste others none, cheeky me! The one birdbath just looks a bit lost and out of context whereas the others blend in better. Sometimes ornaments are connected to a memory, a person and thus valuable. I think if it sits happily in its place and doesn't irritate me, it's well placed.

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  12. Another good post, Alain. And lovely pictures. I love a sophisticated, classical look, but alas, my taste tends to the whimsical. I admit to having a gnome, two dragons, an elf, even an angel. I guess what is right for your garden is whatever pleases you.

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    1. I agree with you. A friend of mine has a huge dragon, chained to a post, which I like quite a lot. As Annette says above, it boils down to taste (and we each have the best of taste!)

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  13. I agree with you completely! The 3rd birdbath looks like someone was carrying it down the path, set it down for a minute, and then forgot to come back and get it. It would drive me crazy!

    I like ornaments that I have a connection to. I started adding garden art a few years ago and vowed to only buy art made in North America, preferably by independent artists in the US, although I'm currently waiting for a metal piece from Canada. I like knowing the pieces are made by hand instead of in a factory in China.

    I like to hide some of the pieces a bit so they don't all jump out at once. It makes them seem more like a discovery, although I have a few "look at me!' pieces, too. I'm adding several more this summer and can hardly wait to bring them outside.

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    1. I think you are right that making sure that the piece does not jump at you works best in a majority of cases. The Buddhist stele in the pictures above is nice that way. It is more or less hidden in the foliage.

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  14. I agree that less is more when it comes to garden ornaments. Placing them is so important too and is an art in itself. I have a large pot similar to the one in your picture. I simply cannot find the right spot for it. It is so difficult to find a place where it looks just right and it is too heavy to lug around the garden and try in different places.
    As for whimsy in the garden. Oh dear ,too often it reminds me of car stickers which are meant to be cute and funny and aren't. Or even worse: slogans on tshirts. I can't take people seriously as gardeners if they have gnomes, fairies or cutsie kittens in their gardens.
    Having said that I don''t like whimsy or too much garden ornament there is a wonderful garden in Scotland called Little Sparta designed by the artist and poet Hamilton Finlay. It is full of odd sculpture, temples and philosophical aphorisms in concrete.I like the plaque as you go into a birch grove: Bring back the Birch'. This garden really shouldn't work, it breaks all the rules, but somehow it does work. It is fabulous.

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    1. Would it work to cut out a piece of cardboard the size of your large pot and try it in different places? I have a cast-iron one I want to move this spring. It has to be rolled in place by two people. You have to make sure where you want it before you start moving it!

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  15. The ornamentation reflects the character of the garden owners, I think. Lovely stone wheel, posts in your herb garden! I have some pergolas, trellis for lianas, some small statues of birds and fishes near my pond.Every autumn I have to clean and store them for winter.
    Have a nice day!

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  16. Hello Alain. I know what you mean about ornamentation in the garden. Some work, most I feel don't. There's a thin line between looking like it belongs and looking cluttered.
    Functionality as you said can also be a factor.

    I am in constant search of just the 'right' one for our garden, one that would fit in with its surroundings.

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