Outdoor Garden Décor - Part 4

Unique garden decor doesn't have to be expensive, and it doesn't have to use unusual or manufactured items either. In fact, one of the most commonly used decorative items in many gardens is a rock.

Although we usually associate areas of carefully groomed pebbles and oh so exquisitely placed rocks with Japanese gardens, they find a place in most any decorative landscape. Large rocks especially can make a striking accent point.

Remember the proper decorating in your garden, and elsewhere for that matter, is not just about getting things to complement each other. It's also about contrast. Use rocks, pebbles and gravel as hard surfaces to separate and enhance the soft grass and foliage of your garden.

I firmly believe that every garden needs to have some kind of water feature, even if it is only a simple electric fountain. Aside from the intrinsic beauty of moving water and the calm in nature of its sound, it will attract birds and other wildlife in turn a static garden into its own mini ecosystem.

Integrating water into the garden is something that goes back literally thousands of years into our past. Indeed, in ancient Persia a garden was not thought to be a garden unless it included some kind of water feature. Persian gardens were usually enclosed in stonewalls, and included streams and fountains to cool the air, and create the feeling of a separate a secluded landscape.

Italian gardens are famous for making the most of Italy's hilly landscape by using water to create visual interest via fountains and waterfalls, while simultaneously. Getting the plant life.

Now you don't need to go overboard here. Hopefully, you have a natural water source in your garden space that you can divert to make it more visually interesting. Failing that, one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to add a water feature to even a small garden is to set up a prefab Koi pond. Complete kits are available at your local home center. All you have to do is dig a hole, install the pond and plug in the pump. Be sure to let the pump run in the pond settle for a week or so before you had fish, to allow any chlorine or other additives in your water system to dissipate.

The garden pergola

Just about every culture has a different type for its garden structures and a different name for them. Your garden structure could be as simple prefab gazebo, a poolside dressing room, or just a simple pergola providing shade for your garden benches.

This is your chance to really let go. Whatever sort of garden structure you put up, it will most likely be the most dramatic and expensive feature in your garden except, perhaps, for the walls and fencing. As always, bear in mind the kinds of plantings that you have planned and the overall environment. If you have a beautiful Italianate garden with Grecian statuary, I recommend that you pay to have the Parthenon removed and flown to your estate piece by piece, to be reassembled in place.

But, even if your name is not Warren Buffet, you can still set up a structure that will add beauty and functionality to your garden. At a minimum, I believe that every garden should have a pavilion or pergola to sit under. Not only do they provide shelter in the event of sudden inclement weather, they also give your visitors shade of a warm summer's day, and give you the opportunity for some plantings that may not be appropriate for a space with full sun.

Garden topiary and hedges

The idea that we should be pruning, trimming and guiding the growth of our plant life is something that has been with us since Roman times. Hedges especially our functional representations of this technique. They can be used to separate different areas of the garden, as barriers to animals and children and is simply decorative features.

I would like to recommend a better restraint on your part with regards to topiary and hedge trimming. Remember that whatever interesting shape you come up with for that Bush or hedge, you will have to keep coming up with it. A rose is just a rose, but a bush that looks like a duck is an endless job.

While for finally here, the sense our four-part series on garden decor. If you slog your way through the entire thing, hope that I've given you some ideas for your garden space, and that you will enjoy it as much as I do my own.

Garden Gates: Wooden or Wrought Iron?
How to Buy a Gate Opener
An Introduction to Garden Decor - Part 1
Outdoor Garden Decor - Part 2
Garden Decoration - Part 3