5 Tips for the Smart Use of Lawn Ornaments
Posted on 20/10/2020
Best Ways to Decorate Your Garden
Lawn ornaments seem to be one of those things that come in and out of fashion in British gardens. Some years you’ll find them littered about all over the place, and then the next they’ve all been donated to charity and replaced with more plants. And while the traditional garden gnomes of yore are definitely less popular today than they once were, there is a huge range of new and exciting ornaments available for gardens today. But there’s no point just filling your outside space with them for no reason, so we share our top five tips on getting the most out of ornaments in your garden design.
1. Make them mean something - one of the nice things about all of the different ornaments available today is that you can really find something that has a meaning to you. Perhaps you absolutely love a certain animal but can’t have one; with a lawn ornament now you can. Or maybe you have lost a loved one and want to add a tribute to them in your garden - choose an ornament that represents them or something they loved. Gardeners today are finding wonderful ways to pay tribute to loved ones using ornaments in their landscaping projects.
2. Use them sparingly - in the past garden ornaments became so popular that they were verging on overkill, so it’s no wonder that many modern garden landscapers keep them to a minimum now. And it’s a good rule to follow. Choose a set of ornaments that you really love, and use them, but try to resist the temptation to continue adding to your collection (unless it is a genuine collection). The rule “less is more” definitely applies to ornaments - aside from anything it means you don’t have to clean as many.
3. Choose a practical option where possible - some ornaments can also be used as bird feeders, plant pots, or wildlife attractors, so now you can enjoy ornaments that also serve a practical purpose. Many gardening services advise this approach because it means instead of having to put up a birdhouse as well as an ornament you can just use one item. This saves on space and garden care requirements in the future and is particularly handy if you’ve got a small garden, to begin with.
4. Use them to mark out borders - if you’ve ever hired a gardening company you may have seen them marking out borders for plants with string, pieces of wood and various other accoutrements. You may have even done this yourself during your garden maintenance sessions. But why not put your garden ornaments to good use and use them as a marker instead. Depending on the size of the ornament it could be used to map out where you’re going to plant certain species or help you remember which part of the plant you wanted to trim.
5. Keep them out of the way - in terms of design, it’s always nicer if the ornaments look like they are part of the foliage, rather than standing apart from it. But there’s also a practical reason for keeping them out of the way - lawn care. The last thing you want to do when doing your lawn mowing is having to move every ornament out of the way, or attempting to mow around it. Avoid any of this hassle by placing your garden ornaments in an out of the way location; one where they can still be seen and admired, but where they won’t get in your way when you’re tending to your garden.
