Garden Decor Ideas

Gardens just wouldn’t be complete without those personal touches you add with loving care. From window boxes to trellises, bird baths to fountains, there is an endless supply of accessories to make your garden into your own personal oasis. Why garden if you can’t time the time to relax on your cedar chair with tea and take in your creation on a calm, sunny morning?

The choices at your local garden store may be overwhelming, so it’s best to plan ahead and visualize what you went your garden to look like. Just like your home, your garden is an extension of your character. What I find works for me is to treat garden furniture like my plants. Every spring I think of something new to make my yard look a bit newer and refreshing. Perhaps it’s time for a trellis? Maybe this is the year for a garden pond? Just like planting new shrubs and replacing older flowers, I’m constantly renewing my garden.

Patio Furniture

Cheap plastic is out, real wood and rustic benches are in. For our philosophy of caring for mother earth, high-quality recycled plastic is also an option to consider. Here’s a couple ideas I found at Yardiac:

Garden Benches	Teak Furniture	Polywood Recycled Plastic

For garden beds and a garden with lots of shrubs:

Wooden half-barrels
These are great for permanantly planting small shubs or a mix of flowers. It’s like a miniature garden within your flower bed, giving it a great design accent. Dwarf conifers, grassy plants and other compact shrubs are great plants to place in your barrel. Make sure you know the maximum size your plants will get, else it could easily grow over and hide your barrel.

Borders
Cedar is the best wood to contain garden beds, but whatever wood you buy, make sure it’s not pressure-treated, as the wood will likely contain toxic chemicals that will leech into the soil.

Composite plastic is gaining in popularity, both for its attractive “real wood” look, maintanance-free qualities and lack of chemicals that pressure-treated wood contains.

Stone is always popular, but how about RockLock? It’s high-density, weather-proof composite that locks together and looks like real stone. This way, they are lighter to ship and use, and you can fill with sand to create extra weight.

Planters and Containers:

Pottery
Planters such as glazed pottery are gaining popularity. They are inexpensive, come in many varieties and are attractive to add to your garden. Careful though, as the less expensive ones may not be frost proof and could crack in colder climes.

Wall Half-Moon Baskets
Another popular item, these are like hanging baskets that have been cut in half. The flat side then goes on the wall. A grouping of odd numbers of baskets make for a greater display, and they are usually filled with colorful annuals. Try wall baskets on fences as well.

Gnomes and Fairy Figures

Yes, I have a fondness for garden gnomes. Along with fairy figures, these durable little creatures add a sense of old fashioned charm and magic to my garden. It’s a way for me to be able to enter a world every morning with a bit of mystery. I have little nooks and corners that I make into faux-secret spaces full of wonder waiting to be discovered. I build up a little scene with each one. For instance, I have a gnome with a hammer, so I have a rock nearby with a chip in it.

Here’s a couple garden figures you may be interested in. The gnomes from Yardiac are based on the books by Dutch authors Rien Poortvliet and Wil Huygen:

Robert With Hammer Gnome	Christopher with Latern Gnome	Garden Fairy Statue