Lawn and garden decorating is mostly restraint. A yard that's edited to a few intentional elements reads designed. A yard that's accumulated decorative objects over ten years looks like a sale.
01Sculpture and focal points
A garden with no focal point is a lawn with plants in it. A focal point — a piece of sculpture, a specimen plant, a water feature — gives the eye somewhere to land and anchors the surrounding plantings in relation to something. One focal point per defined garden area. Not a focal point every 8 feet.
02The entry as a designed sequence
The path from the street to the front door is a designed sequence whether intended or not. A path lined with low hedges or seasonal plantings, with consistent edging and adequate lighting, reads intentional. The same path with random plantings and no edging reads accidental. The investment is in the sequence, not the individual plants.
03Hardscape as the bones
Garden decorating that relies only on plants changes dramatically with the season and between years. Hardscape elements — a defined path, a stone border, a low wall, a well-placed boulder — hold the garden's composition through the off-season and through the gaps between planting cycles.
04Restraint with decorative objects
Garden ornaments, wind chimes, solar lights in decorative shapes, and painted rocks are all legitimate choices in the right quantity. The right quantity is significantly less than most people use. One well-chosen sculpture or ornament reads intentional. Seven reads collection.
Marcus Webb is a general contractor and home maintenance writer based in Columbus, Ohio. He writes about the repairs and installs that come up every year in every house — the practical, repeating work that keeps a home livable.