What is your favorite out-of-the ordinary item in your garden? (plant or otherwi

My latest aquisition is a large statue I call the garden girl. She has in her hands a small bird and her face is just so full of rapture!

This year it's my arbor, especially since it was such a great deal and so unusual. http://davesgarden.com/t/382402/
Now, if and when I EVER get my pond in, I'm sure I'll love it!

I had to put other since I have & really like all of the above except for a gazing ball. I don't have one of those & right now I have no plans on getting one. They are great if U want them..I just don't.
Sugar

My newest thing is "Claymore." He's a live toad the size of a small orange. He chose to sit in one of my brugs. He does have several hollowed out places to sit in in different pots.

I have so many plants I love deeply, but also I am working on some hypertufa pots and I love them also, because I made them.

My favorite item in the garden is a small pot bellied stove sitting on a stump surrounded by red, white, and blue petunias. It's not your run-of-the-mill garden art, and is a great marker for someone visiting for the first time.

My boyfriend with his tractor digs very deep holes and set huge stones into the ground. His latest project was a stone table, which he made by burying 3 upright stone legs and then cementing them in the earth. We then placed a 3 ton stone top roughly 5 ft x 7 ft on top, it took about 1.5 hours to gradually block the stone, the tractor couldn't lift it as high as the table. The table is about the height of a bar. Although the dogs like to lie under the table, I have to spread mulch to hide the cement. It's quite the thing, I live on a 3 acre corner lot and it can be seen from the road.

CLADIUM...I have Caladium in pots, on the porch of my summer cabin, and also in pots at my house in the woods. The give the most bang for your money for use in the shade or part shade. They are beautiful.
My daughter-in-law wondered how well they will grow if she plants them in ther house after summer is over. Has anyone tried this? Any special care for keeping them thriving over the winter months as a house plant? Thanks for any helpful replies. Dawn

It's not unusual, but my favorite thing in my garden is the cypress swing.

It's where I have my first cup of coffee in the morning, and my last cup in the evening (and several others throughout the day). It's where we gather to plan outings, to discuss serious issues, to relive old memories. I have collapsed in exhaustion on that swing after working too hard in the heat. I've fallen peacefully asleep on that swing after a long hard day at work.
From that swing I observe the comings and goings of birds, squirrel, butterflies and lizards. I oversee the uneasy peace between the wildlife and the domestic animals. I plan my next projects, and re-evaluate my past endeavors.
It's my outdoor parlor. It's the focus of the yard.

Cheri'

There wasn't a choice for "none" or "weeds" so I picked other. I guess where I live I might need a choice of rock fence ;) I move several of my larger houseplants outside for the summer & they have various ornaments hanging in them.

I unfortunately don't have anything out of the ordinary in my garden but my sundail would be the closest. However it is currently disappearing into a tomatoe plant. It's one of those iron globes with the arrow thru it. How am I suppose to tell time with it? lol, Mari

Since my wife Pauline placed a bird table and bath in our garden in Basildon, England we have been getting a lot of birds in and we find it very relaxing to watch what they get up to.

My daughters and grandchildren gave me a beautiful statue that has a boy and girl apearing to chase a kite with a burgundy color ball that you can see my garden in, it's truly gorgeous.

I said "other" and here's why. So far it's my favorite but that could change when my "shed sunflowers" painting is done!
Other DG members named this my "cdsinatree."


This message was edited Monday, Jul 14th 9:51 AM

it's my grandmother's antique bunny statue (cast iron) that I just painted terracotta because it was deteriorating at an alarming rate!

Hi everyone! My favorite thing in my gardens would have to be the plants themselves. However I wanted to share a link to a place I purchase my bird bath and other stat. from. The prices are really good for the unique products they carry. God bless everyones garden this year!

http://www.designtoscano.com/jump.jsp?itemID=68&itemType=CATEGORY&iMainCat=66&iSubCat=68

Dana

We have 3 ponds and 3 water features in our garden.

Paul

Just finished this obelisk for a garden tour June 28th. The backyard was too plain. So this brightened it up.

My favorite thing is a metal stake with an American Saddlebred horse cut out of metal on the top. But I also love my hosta!

LimeyLisa Kay

I have a boulder the size of a small sofa that sits beside my driveway that is unusual,as we have very few boulders around these parts...my BIL who is a landscaper gave it to me for my birthday.Not many gals can say they got a rock for their birthday!

My favorite is my Gazebo made from cedar logs.
Especially right now when the Clematis is in bloom.

Although I love our new, very wild pond, our birdfeeders have to be my favorite things. We can get 20 or more roufus (is this how it is spelled?) hummingbirds waiting in noisy lines at their feeder. While, in another part of our yard, finches hang upside down to eat out of theirs. Next to them, a blackheaded grossbeak, a chipmunk, a spotted towhee, and a chestnutbacked chickadee share the feeding platform. The sparrows are at the small hanging feeder.

All this activity can be viewed from the house. And, now that I think about it, the pond does fit in to this birding category. Nothing gives me more of a thrill than to see the birds splashing and drinking from the newest watering hole in the forest.

I just read all the "favorite things" everyone has and they were so cool I completely forgot what mine was!!! Oh, yeah - it's the Nicotiana I started inside this winter - I thought it was English Lavendar and at first was disappointed it wasn't - now they smell soooo good and have the funkiest flowers I've ever seen!!!! :) (The Brug Babies I just got come in a close second, and the Angel ornament (to remember a friend) on my pencil tree is mighty special, too.)

I voted for plant as the focal point....
but thinking back, that is not entirely correct.
Plants are in essence the focal point, but I try not to have any plants or flowers that stand out overly much.
My style is to draw no attention at all. My gardens blend with nature so that you hardly notice any one thing, it is overall aesthetically pleasing.


allright fess up, who has one of those gazing balls?
drew

Deeproots.. I have chairs with plants on them & a lot of other "garden junk" but no gazing ball.. don't like them. They are OK if U want them.

I got 2
and you can't have them....LOL

Do they gaze at each other??? (grin). No gazing balls here, but I have admired them in others' gardens...

I love my ponds even though they are not finished yet. I have four ponds so far. Only two of them have pumps on them the other two are natural. Love 'em, can't get enough of 'em.

My fake rooster on the fence. The neighbors have all had to get close to make sure he isn't real because his feathers (real) move in the wind. It makes me giggle every time I hear someone visit upstairs and they call out that there is a rooster out there ;~)

my pond, it's about an acre
ought to get into water plants...

I voted for favorite specimen plant-ok a couple of plants.Purple basil,sweet basil and parsley.
Well there are others but im sticking to these right now.lol
btw,does a homemade(kinda sorta)bird bath count as a vote too?
My bird bath is a 13 in. clay pot with a very wide saucer for the top.The birds and a crow likes it.The crow dunks his or her food in the water,sometimes i find beetle carcuses too,when changing the water.hmmm

I voted other. My favorite things in my gardens are my rocks. Of course I love the plants, but the rocks are the foundation, and they are also all gifts from Stan! this is a picture of the newest garden.

My favorite thing in my garden besides my flowers is the fountain that my hubby got me for Mother's Day. It's a lovely addition to the space & the sound of the water is very soothing. I tell him that the young lady & young man are he & I under that umbrella. I think he thinks I'm nuts!!

Have to say my stepping stones :0)

I am borrowing a kentia palm from work for the Summer...

A year ago this was just a double driveway ......but in September, the pond was started ....off to the left in this view. Can't see it? Have to admit that plants love it there - thus it isn't highly visible right now! The pavers are my project of the moment .....love doing it - but will be SO glad when it is finished!

I never know what the Garden Gnomes will plant in my small Kitchen compost pile each year. Just piled up stuff, never turned. Last year I got potatoes and this year I am getting Sugar Pie Pumpkins...so neat when this happens.....SB

I love to watch the birds and ground squirrels in my garden. Goldfinches snack all day long at my thistle feeders. Western Bluebirds visit for drinks from my bird bath. The Magpies and Crows love to eat the peanuts, while the Scrub Jays hide the peanuts in the mulch.

Everything, from the plants to the poultry, is wonderful in the garden, I wouldn't be without any of them.