"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Shell91" contains these words:

Recently I read on another bulletin board quite a lot of people were
derisive about people who put up gazing balls and other such decorations
in
their gardens. Any thoughts on things like gazing balls or those copper
garden stakes with beads or glass balls on them in gardens? How about
solar
powered gazing ball / light combinations or other lights in the garden?
Just wondering what the general feeling is about these things.

What does it matter what anyone else thinks? It's your garden, not a
fashion statement or a neighbourhood competition. Have whatever you
like, as tasteful or tasteless as you want. Have things you don't even
like, but were given by or belong to or remind you of someone you love.

We have or have had a shifting population of all kinds of trash and
treasures in our garden, from Ent people homemade from forked driftwood,
to shells, beach stones and bits of flotsam that catch the fancy on
walks. There's a beautifully engineered fancy brass machine gear axle,
scrap gift from and reminder of my friend Jim, sitting on a slightly
queer table made by my friend Anthony. Recently I had some large granite
boulders delivered by a crane; and last week we found a huge orange
inflated plastic beachball which must have blown up the sea cliff in a
high wind. That's still bowling around the garden scaring our dog. There
are bits and bobs hanging from and in trees...wooden and plastic wind
spirals, birdfeeders, weird faces and masks.In among plants there's a
blue pig,(mothering day joke); a collection of frogs and toads (son's
childhood nickname) in various materials, a sleeping dragon (reminder of
life in Wales), and a larger than lifesize stone sculpture of a sitting
pregnant torso, (splurged inheritance from gardening aunt). Passers by
view the figure from her majestic rear and recently I discovered she's
known round the village as "The Bum". Oh, and there are two lifesize
wire figures, male and female, used for scarecrows. Various stone and
Thai ceramic bowls hold fresh water for dogs, birds, and just because I
like reflections in water. Some of the water bowls have things floating
in them; a glass fishing float, a terrible plastic water lily (gift),
and a battered plastic duck found on the beach by my dog. A crop of tall
swaying steel rods balance stones on their tops; and a tall copper
flower has a large glassbead centre (all made by John). Last, or perhaps
first, there's a rusty tin crow nailed beside the front gate.

I don't suppose any one of those things has much meaning or value to
anyone else, but to us they mark memories, old jokes, places and people.
Just pick what's special to you, and enjoy it.

Janet.




Hi
Your garden sounds pretty neat to me I'm basically a "throw it on the
ground and if it grows great" gardener. I do try to leave the areas I play
around with as natural as I can, meaning not much in the way of mulching or
digging and virtually no pesticides and such, since I love the lizards and
frogs that live there. We have geckos that sing and chirp at night,
especially after rain or watering. I bought some heavy copper wire from the
local home depot store and made some garden stakes with a few glass floats
and some beads. I also designed and built my pvc fence to keep my plants
safe. I hope to rebuild it in copper pipe one day soon since I think it
would be very pretty. Also looking for just the right old shoe to turn into
a planter for succulents. I do have a bird bath made from a large size
plastic drip tray bolted to a 4x4 fence post. I would hang birdfeeders and
hummingbird feeders if I could be sure I wouldn't get a lot of bees too (we
have had reports of "killer" bees in our area)

We are still remodelling our house after we flooded 2 years ago and are just
starting to look at the yard and what we can do with it. I like lots of
greenery and fortunately we live in a semi-tropical area where most things
stay green all year.

Mostly I asked the group about the gazing balls and such to make
conversation and to see what other people's gardens are like.

Shell