Sherry

But as for gnomes and fairies, families of geese in gingham, twirling sunflowers with smiley faces, flamingoes - no thanks. I will concede it's likely a search for beauty or whimsey that is obviously popular elsewise the garden centers wouldn't be full of the stuff.

edited for spelling error

I'll make sure to send you at least a dozen plastic pinwheels to *spin* in your gardens.

No garden gnomes for me!

I do like some cement items. I have many now that I think of it. Including a Bench, bird baths (3 ;), planters, lamp posts, and.... I'm sure you'd absolutely love my sunbathing frog in its "kini" ..... a gift from a friend.

I also have 3 gazing balls...another item some loathe lol. Placed wherever a little pop of color is needed. A small patch of staked birdhouses tucked away in a corner...which I quite like.

Of course they are not all in one area. I do have many bed that they are placed in....

Nothing wrong with a few accents here and there IMO. It's when people get carried away and have more "accents" than garden, that is a turnoff for me.

Can't stand plastic stuff (but I do use plastic pots to line my pottery, but it isn't seen once planted in), especially white plastic pots or cheesy/kitschy garden statues/garden art. I'm not big on whirly things, either - what do you call those thingamajiggers that whirl around when the wind blows?

This was "liberated" (stolen) from the garden of a house being torn down in my neighborhood. Yes, I am a thief. Yes, I can live with it. I'm assuming it originally came from some old, public building, also demolished at some point in time in Mpls. It's heavy and took 2 of use to move it into place.

Nope, no gnomes for me. I might consider one, but only if it were real. Maybe something with a bad disposition and active at night? I can see possibilities there.

mxk said: "what do you call those thingamajiggers that whirl around when the wind blows?" One calls them annoying and that's about it.

Kevin

Personally I found the hardscaping at Versailles a bit that way.

Perhaps I could take as much as Kevin's plinth, but no more.

Another gift was a leather biker boot filled with soil that had plants growing out of the top and holes cut in the sides. The plants are long gone; the boot remains.

My daughter gifted me with a beautifully sculpted granite owl which sits on some pieces of granite under the branches of some of my perennials. It's very natural & blends in.

I gifted myself with a brass sundial that my son set atop a pipe in my butterfly bed. It's a tribute to a rabbi who came through the Holocaust (and recently celebrated his 100th birthday).

Only thing plastic in my garden beds is a rain gauge.

DH is not a fan at all when it comes to statuary, so I have to live vicariously through my mom. She has a very large garden so can pull off a lot of stuff. Here's a sampling.

I keep threatening DH that I'm going to clear the other side of our yard and install my secret English garden complete with statuary. I think we're settling on a meadow though.......oh well, my garden will still be without statuary.

Oh yeah, I did make a couple of suncatchers this past winter that I really like!

Sorry so many pics! I do like accoutrements in the garden!

I tend to like a few things, although I don't have much. I can't seem to afford the things I like, lol. I have a japanese lantern that I love, and a few assorted small pieces that mostly were gifts. I LOVE Kevin's column! I like the architectural pieces. My cousin has a huge old salvaged wrought iron gate that is just lovely and has it standing out in a field behind her house with some grasses next to it. Very nice.

I don't like the wooden plaques of little old fat women bending over, lol, or anything overly coloful (with mixed colors, that is). I admit I am a sucker for cobalt blue, so I do like that color pots. Not that I have many. If the budget ever allows, I may indeed allow myself some fripperies, lol.

:)
Dee

Even though I say I'm not judging, it does makes my skin crawl. I can't stand that stuff. Puppies are cute, baby animals are cute, violas are cute, some babies and even people are cute. All that other stuff is just weird.

Kevin

The comment about the whirly thingies made me laugh - I needed that after a long day, it rang so true!

Well, hey, people judge my taste, too. I don't like hanging light fixtures/chandeliers in my house, and I have little in the way of wall decor/hangings, people in my circle can't wrap their head around bare walls LOL!

I also have a couple of bird baths and other water sources for all the varmints that visit (we have a fort knox for the chickens at night)

Mom had said at one point she wanted ducks. I found a pair of free concrete ducks on Craigslist and put them in an enclosed garden. She is happy with those and they are much neater

And of course some windchimes to help drown out the cursing and screaming from the neighbors.

But no cute sayings, wooden cut outs etc.

One of my neighbors seems to want to know what direction the wind is blowing. Lots of windsocks, plus the colorful fish on a stick - whatever Nemo is and a shark and something I can't quite identify. I've never had nicer neighbors but our yards are separated by a mixed shrub, conifer, and tree border so the coral reef isn't constantly in my line of sight.

I am not into cute unless it is faded or dead..

Yard detritus

This was once a hat of the month and then photos of warmongers get pinned to it and…. the rest you can see. Wasp love to live in it now.

Kippy, I guess you should be grateful that you do not have their lives. I recommend some razor wire as fence art. And then train some vines on it.

There are a few things I do like. Mostly stuff with a "punch line". Tree faces, faux wells, crashed spaceships, cement garden gnomes, fairy doors, Corinthian columns.

There are a couple of items, a birdhouse and small pale blue watering can, to put in out of the way spots if I remember, which I didn't this year. I don't consider trellises as fripperies.

My mother gave me two plastic pink flamingoes years ago. Some years they get plopped in a snow pile near the front door as a winter joke. Fortunately she did not live in the same city and didn't visit in winter.

Would love to have a copy of a statue of a naked woman bent over backwards that I saw at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2000. Her concave stomach would make an interesting bird bath. I've searched the web a few times but can't find a photo of the original and don't remember the name. It may have been a Rodin.

There is a terra cotta pot and a terra cotta adobe style birdhouse I made which only attracted wasps so it sitting there on the porch for temporary. I made several birdhouses designed after Russian churches with gilded onion domes but put that project aside and never tried to market it. Those are indoors.

The talk of horse skulls brings to mind the time (about 40 years ago) that I dragged the skull of grandpa's last draft horse to high school on the school bus to be an exhibit in a science project. That sucker was HEAVY! It may well still be there since it was too heavy for me to want to drag it back home again, and the biology teacher was fascinated by the size of it ;-)

Personally, I like it when people go for the unusual, what ever it is and don't settle for the obvious Mr. Jones solutions. I am a HOA's nightmare. My husband and I would like to build a 20' skill saw cutting up our fromt field. We have several dream projects but we need to finish the house first. I am afraid once that is done, I will have no energy left.

I have some garden faces, suns and birdhouse hanging on trees and walls also. My overall desired look is sort of a whimsical hidden/secret garden. It will take me a few years to get there.

My garden gnomes need to find their way back there also. Need to find some time to get them repainted.

I agree that Kevin's "liberated" pot stand is striking. Glad he rescued it from a terrible fate.

Hoovb’s photos show a sense of whimsy that can work well in gardens.

Tinfoilhat .... boy, do I love your creative expression and sense of humor! I'm guessing you need both qualities to garden in the desert. Your roadrunner is a hoot ... I had to show him to my DH.

I like what you’ve done in your gardens, TexasRanger. The contrast of the adobe walls, the sand, and the objects you find in the world around you plus the colors you’ve added are marvelous. I also admire the clever way you've shared the art indoors with the outside.

Thyme, that little guy from your trip with your mother must bring back memories every time you look at him. That’s a striking rococo angel at the edge of the your mom's garden. I also like the garden accoutrements you made. All of these elements are so personal.

Wontonamara, your preferences made me laugh ... politically incorrect and/or falling down dead! All of the photos show a strong architectural bent. Your creations definitely belong to their environments .... like that “found” wasp's nest. I liked that 4th photo ... to me it was kind of like ET standing there on the right, phoning home on a big disk. Great combo of objects standing in the grass.

Adellabedella .... the birdhouse decorated with its morning glory "tentacles" seems to be enveloping the mushroom trio below and those sleeping elves look very comfy spot under the tree.

Wow, Coll_123! The sculpture you made of your darling dog is not only amazing but it pulled at my heart. When we lost our dog, Penny, my DH was so distraught that he immediately buried her in our garden right near the shed. Over the years, that area has become her garden ... we call it "Penny Lane." Her headstone is on the left of the path.

A few Christmas’s ago I surprised him with the Penny Lane sign in the upper left of the first photo. He added a light along the path to kept the walkway lit for her at night and then a birdbath. (Penny was an older dog and loved to sit on our deck and watch all the birds.)

We used a favorite rock as her headstone... and to keep animals away from her grave. Penny was a poodle and the rock's rusty color is the same as her coat.

Here's a better view of Penny's night light:

But not all is solemn in our yard. After visiting Notre Dame in Paris, I wanted a gargoyle. Here's Étienne ... he's listening for any and all danger that might dare to come near.

Molie

Hoovb, I started to make the statue when my dog Seamus was still alive...I did not think we would lose him that soon. It was a couple years after his death before I could finish it. I strarted by making a clay model of just his head...I wasn't sure if I would sculpt the whole thing out of clay and make a mold to cast concrete, or what. I have worked with concrete/hyperufa in my garden so I am somewhat familiar with the material and I bought a book about concrete garden sculptures which helped.

So I made a mold out if the clay version of his head and then cast a plaster model from that...I used the plaster one to help me with the rest of his body, which I wanted to freely sculpt over an armature. You just slowly add layers of concrete, and then you can carrve areas away when the concrete is still "green". So before the body was done I cast his head in concrete, and attached that to the rest of the armature

this is my sweet boy Seamus

I have to tell you something funny: I've never seen a Boston terrier w/ dalmation-like spots under the white fur on its chest...But when I first saw Seamus' photo, I thought they looked like faint pawprints!!

But.........

Wanatanamara's blue bowl and statue in the dried grass has to be my very favorite one. That's true art -- the colors/textures are fabulous! I give that bit-o-frippery an A+.

I like leaning pots, the kinds with the rounded bottoms sitting at an angle among grasses and have those but I really think that bowl does it much better. I mean, you do see that a lot with the roundy bottom pots and I can't call it original but what else can you do with them?

I met Hula Girl at a rundown cantina on a Mexican beach. In her glory days she was a madam at a cathouse in Honolulu. We shared a few bottles of cheap Sangria as she told stories all night.

Bobbed Wire? You want bobbed wire?
I was going to make a warm an’ fuzzy set of love birds. I jolted myself with the arc welder and my tinfoil hat changed channels and started picking up Mexican soap operas out of Nogales down by the border. There were no plans for any bobbed wire in my lovebirds but after listening to the lies, cheating, and deceit for a week the bobbed wire just kind of snuck in. Hell, it took over. We fought back with a bouquet of flowers. While there is still hope in their eyes my 2 love birds have now seen a new reality that is all rust spots, nicks, scrapes, scars.

Bastogne the Desert Tortoise
Low and slow, the way my plants grow here in the desert. Shell is 18' in diameter, weighs 40 pounds.

I’m jealous and envious of the greenery in your gardens. This is the view of the open range looking south behind my place.

I bet that view traumatizes people on a forum called Perennials. Add in string of 110F+ days and you can see why I wear a tinfoil hat and talk to Freon tanks, tire rims, and old pieces of rusty junk. Today is different, the rain has been coming down in buckets this morning and will keep me from working at my welding table this afternoon. I was looking forward to it. There is an old blind saxophone player waiting out there with stories of the good ol’ days in Memphis, Chicago, an’ Kansas City. We were going to New Orleans today.
Enjoy your yards, gardens, and secret place, whatever kind you have. It’s good to have a place to escape politics and the 24/7 news cycle.

As is, mine is a dry prairie with desert overtones & I try anything that will adjust here because day after day of 100 to 110 with no rain is not at all unusual here in summer for weeks on end. Soooooo, from my perspective your landscape is all about plants I am interested in, the kind you look and look for but cannot find for sale very easy or at all. Seeds are usually the best bet, but even so, its not easy finding those either. Guess its "an acquired taste" for the adventurous but hey, anyone can find a regular "purdy" commercially sold perennials like you see planted everywhere. My preference runs toward subtle color and texture, not green and flowery. Thats why you can do that bright sculpture.

I love your Funky Fripperies. Out here where its a whole lot of flatness and prairie grass it would work. Oh, and we got plenty of bobbed warr around these parts. The whole state is bob warred out in the country.

paul, yea I know all about the "written" part but it turns some people off. There is a reason for expressing it that way and when I am being formal I do.

Try clicking on one of my pictures to get into my PhotoBucket album that way. Click on blue Bucket link in left upper corner and see if that gets you in.
Most of my plants are native. I don’t have a green thumb. Plants cry and faint when I walk in a nursery. What I don’t kill I have to fight the javelin and rabbits off to keep alive. My place is basically centered around a large water feature.

I like it but so does all the wildlife it draws. It draws everything from frogs and turtles to bobcats and mountain lions. After looking at the open range picture in above post, it would seem impossible for a frog to make the journey but they do.
A 10-12 year drought also makes my little oasis the go to spot in my corner of the desert. Bad habits like feeding the outside cats in the garage brings in large creatures that eat the cat food and then my plants for dessert.

Ol’ Harvey there has some pretty nasty teeth and he’s part of the reason I have flowers made out of steel

Several years ago I saw what I thought was a bobcat chasing one of the barn cats through my backyard in the predawn light. Without thinking I ran out there in my boxer shorts and stocking feet. I yelled at it as it was climbing a tree after the cat and it dropped down and faced me. Three thoughts struck me at once. 1. That isn’t a bobcat, it’s a way bigger young mountain lion. 2. This ranks right up there with some of the dumbest things I’ve done. And number 3. What was I thinking, I don’t even like that nasty old barn cat, Lucky for me the mountain lion figured me and the cat weren’t worth the effort and walked off. To paraphrase John Wayne, “Life is tough here in the desert and it’s even tougher when you’re stupid.
It don’t know the name of the little yellow flowered plant by the dog. It washed in here on a flood about 10 years ago. They will grow with our natural occurring rains but love spots where I have drip irrigation. They self-seed and flower spring through fall. Send me an email with your address and I’ll send you an envelope full of seeds.
Lantana grows well here on just a little drip irrigation.
I grow bog plants like Water Canna, papyrus, elephant ears easily out here using old 5 gal. buckets, old plastic coolers or any old tanks I run across by burying them and putting them on drip system. Only drawback is they need dividing often and some need some shade for part of the day.
I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place here. Most things that can stand the scorching heat, die back to the ground every winter with the freezes I get. Most trees I water heavily to get growth are weak and break in the high winds we get.
Red Mexican Bird Of Paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) grows well here on little to no supplemental water. Most years it freezes back to the ground but returns following spring.
Yellow Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia gilliesii) grows well here and makes it through the winter.
Mexican Honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera) comes back every year.
Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) grow well and provide a little shade. They are easy to start from cuttings once you have one.
I have Yellow Bells and Orange Bells but they die back to ground year.
Must yuccas do well here and provide a nice focal point.
Only 3 things I can really tell you.
1. Go native.
2. Don’t go native and find a doctor that will write you prescriptions for the despair that is surely to follow.
3. Learn to weld and build your own flowers and critters to add color to your yard.

Wait a minute, make that 4 things.
4. Get a garden helper.

In yet another unrelated note: I was going to build an army of Minions and take over the world but production stalled because I couldn't find teeny tiny combat boots. Then my wife found out and took away my sangria, thumped me upside the welding helmet and grounded me for two weeks. My prototype is now a garden helper but we still have plans for world domination. My wife will rue the day she took my sangria away and thwarted my plans

I may just take you up on that seed offer.

I did Fripperies a while back for the Dallas Market, you can see I like bright colors too and did these as a joke in the beginning. Here's a few pictures, sort of a Saints and Sinners theme --- nocturnas, nuns and monks. They were sold to buyers as garden art until I got to the point of being pretty burned out and finally sold my kiln because buyers want multiples and I hadn't counted on the repetition part, if you can relate, a real nightmare. These are terra cotta figures done by coil method and they are about the size of a two year old child. Kids love them and go up to talk to them.

(Hmmmm.... is it all that desert sun that makes you both crazy ... in the nicest possible way ... or do you have to be crazy to take all that desert sun?)

Tinfoil, can you explain that large body of water. What is it and what's your source?

Like Paul said ... this thread gets better & better as more folks from different places show frippery in their part of the gardening world.

Camp... you have to post a photo of that offing fairy! I imagine it looks almost antique after having been smashed into the dirt so many times.

texasranger, your nuns remind me of an art piece I saw in San Antonio a while back, except your nun is wearing clothes. Lol!

This is why I love art in the garden. It's individual expression. You never know what you're going to find.

Maybe the sun does make us a little crazy, but I think its probably the "howdy-do" casual atmosphere that exists out west along with the fact that most people have an overdeveloped sense of humor and fun. We do seem to like amusing fripperies down here. Lots of people have those bed frames in their yards with a garden planted in it, get it? A Flower Bed.

So "garden beds" in OK. I have never seen one of those. Not a texas thing.

I'd have to draw the line on the toilets and I'm not really into the "metal beds" either, the joke is kind of worn thin on that one. It will probably go the way of the butts and something else will pop up.

I have seen some really nice antique weathervanes but those don't come cheap. We have big brass buffalos all over the city in the municipal plantings with native grasses and I like those a lot.

Annette

No, I am not posting a picture of the fairy......ever. I like to think that daughter produced said item in a spirit of subversive irony so I may resort to filthy tactics and gift grand-daughter with some supremely annoying trinket in return.

Coll_123, your tribute to Seamus turned out beautiful and looks great keeping watch in your garden!

Tinfoilhat, you had me in stitches reading your posts and I am in awe of your skills... I adore Bastogne the Desert Tortoise

TxRanger - Wow, those are made out of terra cotta? Very cool! I can relate a little bit of turning something that I enjoyed into "work" and deciding not to sell anymore.

Paul, I like your stepping stone and window. I have a few homemade stepping stones myself; a very enjoyable project.

Aside from the aforementioned stepping stones, I have two concrete bird baths. When DH and I moved in last summer, there was a ton of kitschy statuary and signs about the property. We immediately rehomed all of it. I would like to get some urns/large planters, perhaps a sundial or an interesting statue if it speaks to me.

My tastes for garden ornament have changed over the years. I had one of those *flower beds* at the beginning over 20 years ago--you know, an actual twin sized metal bed frame planted with annuals...I thought is was awesome at the time. Had various rusty things here and there in the borders...not to my liking now, although I do have some rusty implements on some of the sheds.

I have a cement 3-piece bench, two cement urns on pedestals in the beds and two vintage aggregate birdbaths planted with succulents that are not thriving! Need to change the soil mix!

I also have a small statue of a boy that's almost all covered with moss, two hollow cement orbs, a vintage gnome with peeling paint peeking out from under a shrub and an older cement crow that has a wash of blue paint on it! Got these from a neighbor's yard sale a long time ago and can't seem to let them go! I also have one large-ish empty pot that sits by the aforementioned bench next to a giant evergreen fern.

The yard is big so there's not a lot of congestion of objects--guess that's how I justify them!

I've been trying to figure out how to transfer pics from my Moto G to my laptop--haven't got the correct USB, I guess. So tech challenged am I!

When I first wandered into this forum and post I said I needed more rainfall to have any kind of greenery and that's why I make my own garden art/fripperies. Mother Nature sent me some WATER!!!

We have gotten the moisture from Odelle too combined with a gulf system. Day after day of multiple inches of rain. We are up at 6 " now and that is light compared to others. More rain for the next three days. It is welcomed. Is your water feature some where under that lake?

Tinfoil ...We are still dry as a bone here. Yours Truly is glad Mr Turtle got saved from drowning but wishes some of that water would move her way. I like Mr. Turtle but I think I like Mr Snail even better, there's just something about that dopey looking face.

Wantanamara, you are worse than me, I've always thought so but now I know. I may be a Tex-witch but you are truly bad and so is that dude you married.

ironic that this is what got me to write you because I have been enamored of your writing in this thread. Wish you would try your hand at a short story; might surprise yourself.