Garden Ornaments

With today's blog entry, I would love to inspire my readers to add a touch of interest to their gardens by incorporating objects'd arte (or otherwise!). For many years, Mrs. B. has gathered unusual objects to add interest to her gardens. Well read, with a keen sense of humor, and an appreciation of the written word, she likes to put these things together in ways that offer the visitor to the garden some pithy content. While the plants are the stars of the show, sculptural elements are the supporting cast. They add little comments that make you think.

The greatest concentration of sculptural elements at LQ may be found in the "Funky Shui Garden", located in what might normally be called the back yard. Here a collection of pieces which derive from many of the world's religions may be found. Together they form an "Ecumenical Garden" which offers homage to the spiritual yearnings of humanity.

If you click on the above picture, you can get an idea of how many oddments are shown off in this area. Everything from gazing balls to a mock Egyptian sarcophagus, from a bas relief Madonna and Child to a carved wooden bear. But it all ties together into the overall theme. In the enlarged view, incidently, youcan also see what looks like flying snow, but is actually petals falling from the enormous chokecherry tree behind the wall in the next garden. This is the same tree shown in full bloom on the front piece of my blog.

Although we try to arrange these objects in some kind of logical order each spring, when we bring them out of winter storage, they sometimes mingle inappropriately. Here the Indigenous American area rubs elbows with a Catholic church. Well, those two religions actually did rub elbows, and in fact still do, so maybe it isn't that inappropriate.

The Funky (Junky) Shui Garden is so full of interesting objects that it really deserves its own blog! That will come at a later date.

Each garden at LQ is expected to carry some meaning or significance, or at least a joke. Here an astrolabe offers a grace note to the Knot garden. But if it's not a garden, what is it?

In the center of the Funky Shui garden stands one of my favorite pieces: a moon dial that no one knows how to interpret. This delightful folly rests in the midst of a bed of catanache (perennial candytuft) in full bloom. We sheer this promptly once the flowers fade to stimulate a second flush later.

Four ladies (goddesses, perhaps?) converse in the garden of one of Mrs. B's daughters. The tendency to add interesting ornaments may be genetic! Metal objects, unlike ceramics, can remain in the garden all winter, and are an important addition while the plants are dormant during the winter months.

This little shrine was set up by one of the renters on the property, so maybe that decorative tendency is just something we learn. By creating a shelter to keep off the rain and snow, this clay sculpture can probably remain outside for the winter without breaking. It's the repeated freezing and thawing that wreaks havoc on ceramic pieces.

The quintessential Santa Fe icon, a kiva-style ladder to nowhere, rests against an adobe wall beside a bed full of hollyhocks. Ladders like this were used by the Anasazis in their multi-storied pueblos, and you can climb them if you visit the cliff dwellings at Bandelier, about an hour NW of Santa Fe. (I'll be posting a blog soon about these remarkable ruins soon on my other site: www.exploringaroundsantafe.blogspot.com)

The vegetable garden wouldn't be complete without a scarecrow or two. Their faces were carved years back from wood by one of the workers at LQ. They used to both be male, but the closer one is a transexual. They are quite happy together, but really don't help much with crows. The owl is actually much more useful in that department.

Our scarecrow couple sometimes like a change of scene. This covered wagon is one of many left in Santa Fe from the days when this was the end of the Old Santa Fe Trail. It is in better shape than most, and can still be rolled.

LQ fronts on Canyon Road at one end, where a particularly nice gallery rounds out the property. There the garden features an ever-changing display of sculpture pieces. Note the stone retaining wall holding the slope behind the children; it was beautifully constructed by skilled Mexican stone masons by dry stacking carefully fitted rough cut rocks.

In another garden in town, I spotted this emblematic sheep's skull. I relate this thematically to the ladder pictured above. Georgia O'Keefe deserves credit for popularizing both of these icons.

Elsewhere in Santa Fe, someone got creative with...what? Barrel hoops? And whatever that central object is. But it looks nice and probable was not expensive. Found objects are great! Here's a unique statement full of imagination and whimsy.

At my own home, I needed a place to display a small collection of glass insulators and antique bottles, some of which were found at TP while we were digging the garden. A rustic fence, made of Siberian elm branches (those weed trees aren't completely useless!), which provides a modicum of privacy while lending support to two roses and a clematis, offered a place to show them off in the sunlight.

Ornamenting your garden space is a great way to express yourself and use some of those odd-ball things gathering dust in the garage. If you liked it enough to keep it, put it out there! My rock collection is also displayed in the garden, as are interesting pieces of driftwood, a whole earth flag, and a license plate which offers the name Pan. It's all shown off in the tiny area behind the elm fence, and it is all showing who we are. Get creative and above all, have fun!