Ornament Your Garden the Artful Way
Most of us love to add artwork to the backyard. However to do so properly needs attention, restraint and consideration. You want a garden that is enhanced by artwork but not cluttered by it, right?
As the lines between interior design and exterior design are fuzzy, we comfortably travel in and out of the backyard. We bring the finest of our landscape thoughts inside on a year-round basis, whether that means forcing branches to blossom in late-winter structures or liner our windowsills with new herbs. Likewise, we extend home conveniences outside, moving to backyard rooms for peaceful pursuits or designing expansive patios to accommodate warm fireplaces or al fresco meals.
Thus for those who have a garden lifestyle, furnishings and ornamentation have additional importance, allowing us to love everything from unusual art to flea market finds while appreciating them in regard to our crops. This is how to take advantage of ornamentation from the backyard — choosing an abundant approach.
Studio William Hefner
Where and where we add items show the value we give them. This classical stone-topped base table is indeed perfectly proportioned and ideally suited to the backyard niche it occupies. The designer has used ornamentation to paint an elegant, silent scene from the landscape.
All the tenets of good design are used here, for instance, appropriate sense of proportion and scale. Outoors, the scale which we work is seemingly endless, since the skies above is really vaster than any an inner ceiling.
Ornamentation has to be substantial enough to stand up to the spaciousness of a backyard. Here, that’s exactly what’s happening!
THOMAS KYLE: Landscape Designer
There are yards. And you will find all works of art.
Maybe your rectangular patch of turf seems lush. But why not give it an artistic treatment, like this enticing Alice in Wonderland–inspired checkerboard of concrete and grass pavers? (P.S.. This lawn is durable, permeable and ornamental — not to mention mowable!)
Remember: The nonplant elements and bits which you incorporate into the garden should be a reflection of your own personal style. In the terminus of the patchwork-quilted lawn is a gorgeous modern water feature. Unique and functional, it balances the two-dimensional “floor” with only the ideal three-dimensional form.
www.KarlGercens.com
Artwork in the backyard should be highly private. It can be anything from lively to restrained. Some anglers choose a curatorial approach to their ornamentation choices, isolating a precious urn on a pedestal. Others favor the organic approach of allowing objects and plants thankfully commingle.
This spectacle is really a happy hybrid vehicle. The architectural and sculptural design elements are encompassed by hostas, which can be framed by a beautiful pergola and aligned perfectly with the stepping stone path. This is a makeup of attractiveness.
Arterra Landscape Architects
Plants and art should coexist compatibly, communicating the designer’s intent. This alluring trio of gazing balls is put, developing a noteworthy moment in the backyard. The orbs signify dazzling blades of grass as well as the texture and colors of this gravel flooring — there’s an eye-catching counterpoint between dull and polished.
Some anglers are known to joke that although crops might be fleeting, art has permanence. That is a reassuring thought to remember when choosing artful items for your own landscape.
BlueGreen Landscape Design
Ornamentation from the landscape offers numerous ways to meet gardening challenges. By way of example, artwork can add interest to an otherwise unexciting corner or make privacy screening while at the same time jazzing up the garden.
The succulent tapestry within this amazing weathered-steel wall is as magnificent as any work of art in a gallery. It’s been set up as a stunning focal point. See the uplighting fixtures at the base of the bit, promising after-dark pleasure of this patterned plantings. With concealed drip irrigation, it is also a design element that the owners can enjoy.
Amy Martin Landscape Design
Take your decorative cues from both landscape and architecture, picking items that talk to a garden’s style. Within this antique cabin garden, the birdhouse with white cladding feels exactly perfect. A stark, contemporary landscape would need something completely different — perhaps a minimalistic bird feeder on a stainless steel post.
Devise an artistic hierarchy to guide your choices. How much attention should every piece command? Pick an appropriate setting for every inanimate object. You want to delight the viewers who catch a glimpse of the artful pieces. But you do not want to divert them from enjoying the total beauty of this garden.
Between Naps on the Porch
There’s absolutely a place for the wacky or smoky, in this way bottle tree. Uninhibited functions of art are best for the vegetable patch or the herb garden, where they’re certain to put a grin on your face every time you’re harvesting salad components.
Plant choices should show off the best of your ornamentation, including up to an artistic amount that is more delightful than its individual elements. In the same way, if your backyard demands something useful, like stakes to maintain tall lilies or dahlias, choose supports which are both decorative and functional.
Arterra Landscape Architects
Your garden’s hardscaping attributes can also be ornamental elements. Juxtapose textures and finishes, such as these dark ipehardwood planks, smooth sand-colored stucco and rocky rock.
Yes, this really is really a retaining wall, however it’s an artful destination that offers garden seats and a fire element. The designer describes the intent: “Layered walls perform double duty as both palaces and a means to define collecting spaces. Contrasting leaf textures and hues harmonize with the hardscape, and plant legends add their vivid statement.”
What a creative alternative which has elevated the once-ignored edge of a garden!
More: 10 elements of a plentiful garden
