You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
OK, so we all have a little garden art here and there. But how do we know when the art stops and the shock-your-family-get-you-in-a-nut-house art starts? Here we go! There are a few little tips to help you know when you have really crossed the line in the world of garden art.
More Plants Than Art
Do you have more plants or more garden art? We have all been by the house that makes you stop to take the photo. There is so much of "this and that" that the whole yard looks more like a junk yard than an expression of art. So when do you know you have too many? Key number one is, when the plants still outnumber the art, you are in the okay zone. Once you have to start counting the number of iris fans in the bed to see if there are more plants or art, or if you start counting the grass blades, then you have too much garden art.
When you can no longer mow the yard.
If you can no longer mow your yard with a mower but must mow the whole yard with a weed eater - not for its size but rather for the number of gnomes or flamingos in the yard, you have a problem. If you keep the bulk of your garden art in the flower beds, you are most likely okay.If you still have more plants than art, see above. The real key here is to leave at least a few good sized areas for grass to grow without anything else. This helps you and it keeps the local neighbors from giving you the stare.
When you remodel and use the new found pots.
When you start to remodel, or are just driving by and you pick up what others have thrown away and make them into a pot, or pond. This might be a stove, fridge, sink, toilet, heater, scrap lumber, or bathtub. Over all, what matters here is not the object but rather the way it is put to use. The more of these in your art collection the more dire the situation. When you are out and about, you will find these things and you will want to take them home and plant in them. You might even have a burning passion to build a whole little kitchen or bathroom (with plantings in everything) in the garden.Just be careful to keep them in good taste and not let them outnumber the plants in the garden.
People stop--thinking it is a weekly yard sale.
If, week in and week out, people are at your door asking if you are having a yard sale,you have too much garden art. Likewise, if you are in the area and people stop, thinking you have a yard art store, you have way too much garden art. The real key here is to have it arranged in such a way that it doesn't look like you must be having a yard sale. If this is an issue for you, then you might want to add a sign to your yard stating that the figures are not for sale.
You have a storage unit.
If you have a storage unit just for your out-of-season garden art, then you just might have too much! If you take things in and out of said storage unit each and every month, you know you have crossed the line with your garden art. The more time you have to spend taking in and out the season's worth of art, the more time you are taking from the garden and that, my friends, is a sad thing indeed.
Only you can say when you have too much garden art. No one but you can know for sure. Family and friends look at most gardeners with their garden art and always tend to say there is too much if there is anything at all. So take all the above with a small grain of salt. If it makes you happy - Carpe Diem!
All images are my own from my garden.
About M Fitzgerald
I am a pentecostal preacher, gardener,husband, and a father. I love natives, daylilies, iris, and roses. I love teaching others, be they children or adults, about the garden and plants.
Posted by alderdeals (from Lancaster, NH) on April 28, 2008 at 3:24 PM:
I personally am not a huge fan of yard art in my own gardens, but we all succumb to it a bit I guess. I mean, who can resist a mooning garden gnome!
...
Subject: Thank goodness we can laugh at ourselves
Posted by DianeEG (from Galva, IL) on April 28, 2008 at 9:34 AM:
Your articles are always great and this one was so funny because it touched home a little too much. Did you know there is a web site for crushed glass for garden paths? Maybe you should start a new tv program (What's With That Garden) like the show for houses. What I like about that program on houses, the owners simply love their odd houses and they don't really care what others think. Although our children and the neighbors may want to start the paperwork to send us to "the home", I agree with your assessment - if you like it then enjoy it. Now, where did I put those blue bottles . . .
Good grief, I just heard something outside and it's hailing like crazy - DARN, there goes my spring flowers.
...
Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on April 29, 2008 at 8:00 AM:
I sure dont know where to find that at - but will look around for you.
Would love to have my own garden show... if the cards come up that way it would be a wonderful blast.
...
Subject: Too fun
Posted by Aunt_A (from Tulsa, OK) on April 23, 2008 at 8:39 PM:
Hey MitchF,
It's meeeee....Aunt_A again.
Funny, funny. You made me smile after a hard day's work. Thanks for the good laugh.
Ummm...I don't know if I should post this on the internet...but one of your other Aunts here (not me) decorated her sidewalk that she created out of concrete and a sidewalk "rock" mold....with...ready for this... blue fish gravel. Maybe it runs in the family, like gardening, hmmm?
After reading your article, I'm thinking about calling some of the junk in my back yard (that I've been too busy to clean up)...GARDEN ART. What? That old real estate sign? It is garden art! What? That old grill that the neighbor gave us? Garden Art...oh, wait...that one is a bird house! A Finch built a huge nest in it a couple years ago. The Starlings couldn't figure out how to get in there and pull the nest apart.
Too funny. Love your sense of humor. Remember the joke you told me when you were little?
"Aunt April? What is worse than finding a worm in your apple?"
"I don't know."
"Finding half a worm!"
"LOL"
"And the worse thing is, you don't know which half you ate!!!!"
"ROLFL"
You, Mitch are a Treasure, with a Capital "T"! Love you! Hope you don't mind me sharing your adorable joke.
...
Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on April 23, 2008 at 10:52 PM:
That would a be a stunning walkway - blue fish gravel.. I can see a whole blue garden running along that one!
I had not thought of that joke in years! Thank you Mitch
...
Subject: I agree
Posted by dmdula (from Morganton, NC) on April 23, 2008 at 2:30 PM:
I agree that if you have more "art" than flowers, you should probably think of getting rid of some! My problem is that my family thinks you should have NO art at all! They just don't appreciate how pretty you can make throw away things when you add a few flowers. i'm still working on them (my family). Wish me luck!
...
Posted by psychw2 (from Boise, ID) on April 23, 2008 at 5:48 PM:
Hummmmm.... is it OK if the garden art outnumbers the plants because the flower bed is BRAND new and it's too early to plant??? Or do I have to remove the Bowling ball, the kitchen chair (with seat cut ready for pot & plants) and the post ready for the bird house???
Is a pair of metal angels and the red metal tubular head board too much for a flower bed that is over 6 feet across by 10 feet long... How many birdhouses are too many on ONE porch? Should I reduce the collection of 10 that sits on my porch? Do I have to count the "look like a bird house" ends of the white garden bench?
...
Subject: funny!
Posted by meg_e (from Dallas, TX) on April 23, 2008 at 11:38 AM:
LOL! It made me think of this house I saw in Missoula Montana. It had a flower bed, and in the flower bed there were no plants but there with slicks stuck in the ground with decapitated baby dolls' heads perched on them.
It was scary.
Would never let a baby 'round those people.
...
Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on April 23, 2008 at 11:42 AM:
That sounds like the perfect house for this article.... but yep a little scary.
...
Posted by Kelli (from Los Angeles (Canoga , CA) on April 23, 2008 at 4:01 PM:
It sounds like those people would be fans of Grandma Prisbey's Bottle Village. [HYPERLINK@www.membrana.ru]
This message was edited Apr 23, 2008 3:00 PM
...
Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on April 23, 2008 at 4:26 PM:
Wow... the doll heads really make the tire planter look normal!
...
Posted by Kelli (from Los Angeles (Canoga , CA) on April 23, 2008 at 6:09 PM:
Though that web site is Russian, the Bottle Village isn't far from here. I've never been there and I don't know if it is open to the public. The pictures I've seen in the newspaper made it look ugly so I had no interest in going. However, these pictures make the place look much more charming. [HYPERLINK@home.roadrunner.com]
...
Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on April 23, 2008 at 11:10 PM:
Very interesting link - would be fun to visit... and leave it all there.
...
Subject: Yard Art
Posted by ccove (from West Islip, NY) on April 23, 2008 at 10:47 AM:
I love the one of the old lady bending over and showing her bloomers. My mother had that one, I removed it one night and told her some hooligans must have stole it.
...
Posted by Seedtosser1 (from Glenview, IL) on April 23, 2008 at 10:58 AM:
Oh my Gosh!
What a Fun read, Found myself Chuckling and Laughing out Loud!!
...Awww ccove.
...
Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on April 23, 2008 at 11:12 AM:
Thanks!
I love that one to!
...
Posted by LariAnn (from Miami, FL) on April 23, 2008 at 11:27 AM:
Reading this reminded me of some sights I saw in Austin, TX. Someone had an old washing machine hanging in a tree, and another person had no fence, yet there was a gate at the sidewalk, and a sign that said "watch out for dog". In that yard, a cat sat serenely, watching the gate! Some people we visited were using an old wringer washer as a beer cooler, out by the pool.
Thanks!
...
Posted by Pamgarden (from Central, VA) on April 23, 2008 at 12:33 PM:
Has Bill the Traveling Garden Gnome visited your garden? He'd love it! What a fun article.
...
Posted by dragonfly53 (from South Boston, VA) on April 23, 2008 at 2:13 PM:
You know you have too much garden art when it looks like KMart has exploded over your yard, LOL!
...
Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on April 23, 2008 at 2:38 PM:
