How to Build an Ornament Garden

Ornament gardens were popular in ancient Roman and Asian cultures. They can formal or fun. The features depend on the available space and terrain. They can include waterworks, specimen plants, ornamental pathways, Buddha statues, gnomes, brass sundials, gazebos or patios for enjoying the garden. Formal English ornamental gardens included elaborate mazes. Asian Zen gardens have a few ornamental rocks or statues on sand that is carefully raked daily. Ornaments and their placement depend on whether you are creating a new garden or decorating an existing one.

Instructions

Plot your existing or future garden on graph paper. Include sites suitable for ornaments like statues, birdbaths, rocks and pools.

Connect ornamental features with pathways. These can meander among flowerbeds and around ornaments or lead to optimal viewing areas with benches.

Include different viewing levels in your design. Water can be below ground level in a pool or above it in a fountain. Put wind chimes in trees, place a mirror along a path to reflect a flowerbed, hang a planter on a wall or erect a tall bird feeder.

Plan lighting to illuminate ornaments as well as walkways. Solar lamps produce soft lights for paths and spotlights are suitable for statues, while twinklelights grace a patio.

Plant a specimen tree, such as a character pine or flowering shrub, as an ornament in large areas of lawn.

Prepare areas for urns, gnomes, columns, birdfeeders and sculptures by leveling the dirt and tamping down to create a firm level foundation. Set the statues in flowerbeds or at the end of paths.

Make your own ornaments by pouring concrete in molds available from craft and garden centers.

Connect the statues and ornament features of your garden with pathways. Plot winding flagstones, concrete sidewalks or crushed gravel pathways leading from one ornament to another.

Place seats or suitable sitting rocks near ornaments.

Set a birdbath on a level spot to add wildlife to your garden. Place it near a water source to make filling easy.

Fish add live ornamentation to a garden.

Dig a reflecting pool next to a flowerbed to double the impact of the flower colors. Include koi in the pool to add their brilliant colors and movement to your garden.

Plot the elevation of the garden to take advantage of slopes for waterways, waterfalls and pools. Waterways lined with rocks can cross the garden and flow under a bridge into a pool or fountain.

Plan a rest area or gazebo to enjoy your ornament garden. Put it under shade trees with a view of the garden features or provide umbrella tables for open patios.

Gazebos offer quiet places to enjoy your garden.

Dig up and then tamp down the area so it is level and the soil firm. Top patios with bricks, paving stones, concrete or gravel to provide a foundation for benches, barbecues, picnic tables or storage features. Gazebos have wooden floors and roofs that provide shade

Gazebos have wooden floors and roofs that provide shade

Ornament the area with a hedge or flower border or flower-filled ornamental pots. Plant species that won't crowd the area or block your view of the ornamental features. Include topiary figures for interest.

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