Funny you should mention fossils, I collected fossils as a kid (lots of limestone in my area, lots of fossils if you know where to look) and my mom used them as garden edging. They looked great. Come to think of it, my parents moved a few years ago and I don't know what they did with them.

I love placing art in my garden in the form of interesting large pots (picked up in my travels and not necessarily planted), stepping stones and birdbaths I've made myself out of cement using large leaves like rubarb as the form, antique iron wheels and kettles found on old farm sites etc. I have lots of statues in my 1 acre garden also. I found a 4 ft statue of the Savannah Girl in Florida this winter plus a smaller statue of St. Francis. I placed Savannah Girl in a central bed surrounded by hostas, lupins, delphiniums, primroses and bulbs. St. Francis went under the apple tree and I have planned a bed with spring bulbs and sweet woodruff around him. My boyfriend has been making metal garden sculpture for a few years, since he retired, and I have lots of his work in the garden too. He makes realisticly coloured, tropical frogs, snakes and turtles and has also made a Kokipelli and an 'Antelope Man' of his own design. My latest idea is to have a bed of mostly blue fescue ornamental grass with a metal free form sculpture of a horse in it. (I had a horse for 22 years and it would be her memorial) I've put my order in with my boyfriend! I've also already grown two whole flats of blue fescue this spring so he better hurry up!
I'm going to a workshop this Wed. evening on garden photography with a digital camera and will hopefully learn how to post pictures on the web so I can show some photos sometime.

Ianna, I love seeing art in the garden, somehow the two just seem to go together. Art adds an air of mystique when it's partially hidden as you suggested. It also adds 'bones' to the garden for all those months we spend looking at our gardens when they're not at their peak.

Have you poked around over in the Hypertufa forum? Loads of creative people making wonderful garden art there. For example: Happiness or Terra May Firma

I'd love to have some 'substantial' art in the garden, right now I'm on a sphere kick, maybe someday I'll work my way up to something larger.

~GardenChicken

The best place I know for garden art is the Festival of Artists Garden Party on Father's Day weekend, just outside Trenton. Superb work, surprisingly reasonable prices. I've gotten some of our most commented-upon pieces that way. We get a new piece or two every year. Incredible pottery, sculpture, etc. There are even plants!
The whole event takes place in the most gorgeous gardens, with ponds, mature trees, etc. Good food available, great music. Really enjoyable atmosphere. And it's free. The artists change every year. There are usually a lot of people there, and it's obvious that everyone from the artists to the visitors is having a good time.
The event is organized by Shelter Valley Studio and Carver's Loft
www.carversloft.com

Dear Garden-Chicken:
Your post has sent my garden help off on another tangent. She has just squandered a couple of hours in the Hypertufa forum, oohing and ahhing, when she KNEW there were weeds choking my bed.
Signed,
Miffed Perennial
(LOL)

Leidie - Too cute!! LOL!!

I get most of my things from secondhand stores, yard sales, flea markets, and of course garbage day!! I love garbage day! It happens every day of the week, and as a courier I get to see it all.

My best find so far has been a little church which was thrown out by an old man who had made it. He really didn't want to part with it, but the kids were constantly crossing his yard and vandalizing things, and one of the targets was the steeple on the church. It is about 3.5 feet long, 1.5 feet wide, and 3 feet high with the steeple. It has stained glass, little steps leading to a little door which opens. If you lift the roof, inside you will find the altar and the pews.
I spoke to him a couple of weeks after I retrieved it from his garbage pile, and told him it was in a safe place. Last summer he even came to see it! He was really happy to see it in our gardens.

I also do mosaics, and have gathered 5 large bowling balls to make into gazing/mosaic balls. You can acquire these at secondhand stores but you have to be persistent as they are starting to be hard to find.

I have a couple of little wagons, an old rocker, an old wicker chair and lots more from 'hunting'. I figure if people don't want it, it's MINE.

Dear Miffed,

So sorry. ;)

~GardenChicken "The Enabler"

Love it all. Dena is legendary with her creativity - thanks for bringing her up. I wish I had her skills. My attempts at hypertufa has been average. I did experiment with my daughter's feet in a relief form. I got her to stand on smooth wet sand in a frame to get impressions and then poured cement over the impressions. I did get a good relief from it. It especially worked with sea shells - you get all the impressions of the shell and it's lasted through a couple of winters. Unfortunately I had very little cement left and so I had only thin layer of the impression.

I love the idea of going to artists galleries - especially the quirky ones. It does give me ideas..

You know what came to mind is a really neat looking Italian farmhouse/mailbox which I spotted in a european magazine years ago. It was made up to be a replica of course,down to its limestone stucco and tiled roofs. Wouldn't this be neat if we could create one? My spirit is willing, let's hope for the results. If successful I'd like to set it up on a pole and set it in the middle of a garden bed.

Teacups--- large giant teacups. Imagine one made of hypertufa imbedded with broken tiles pieces or what not, in your garden. Fill it with plants of all sorts.

Another idea - mosaic stoneworks. There are those small river stones of different colours. Why not, if you like tedious work, create designs on a flagstone. Wouldn't it be neat to have a welcome 'mat' made out of one. The idea came from one of the many trade shows I've been to.

I love going through international magazines for ideas as well.

Right now, I'm thinking large wrought iron outlines of fruits painted in vibrant colours.

I have some old wooden bowling balls that I painted copper which are hidden in under my roses, I also have rubber lizards in my desert garden which is full of succulents and sedems. I also love old glass globes from light fixtures and have these in the garden in areas, as well as hanging off shepherds hooks, and frogs everywhere. As my house is a mediterranean style I also watch for iron stuff, I have a really neat 3' tall candle holder that has a glass globe attached to the top that peeks out from my Rozanne geraniums.

I love unique garden art as well (although I really try not to broadcast it as people keep bringing me "art" from the dollar stores!), and I love using materials I have around. Soo... one thing that I've done was to take some of my scrap stained glass and create an unpatterned 3D abstract bird which hangs from one of my trees in the summer. I'm also working on making simple scrap glass "objects" which I'm going to hang over my veggie patch to help keep the birds away and create a little visual appeal in the area... and of course, if they don't last, well - it's only scrap!

At least it keeps me out of trouble in the winter - until seeding starts again!

Does a mirror count? In one corner of my shade garden I have a dresser mirror with an arched top..trompe l'oeuil! (sp?)

I like using old things for planters - a coal shuttle, a watering can, wash tub, enamelware. I'm always on the lookout!

My bird bath is also in the shade bed...it is the stump of a white birch with a huge plant saucer perched on top...the robins/jays sure make a mess of that mirror when having a bath!

Bloomers

Dreamy... I like the idea of a mirror in the garden. I've been looking for one good sized one at flea markets and possibly lining it with mosaic tiles.

I love to put 'garden architecture' in my garden ... by turning old items into planters or decorations etc. I've turned old wheelbarrows, seed spreaders, washing maching tubs, etc. into planters. I've got lots of ideas at my website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Country Roads Gardens and Crafts

Personally, I cannot stand a lot of the "garden art" that some folks put into the garden. A lot of it is "cheezy" and smacks of poor taste artistically.

However, I do like some garden art. I do have an old wooden wheel barrel filled with flowers in the lower corner of the garden, I have an old bone cutter from 1890 tucked into another part of the garden. I've an old iron wheel leaning up beside a fence screening my air conditioner. I also have some commissioned works of art placed here and there where something is needed to catch the attention or fill a void. Multi-coloured dwarfs...NEVER.

I think they have to blend in and add something to the visual sensation the viewer is beholding. If it distracts, it is simply wrong.

..... my humble opinion, ... for what it's worth.

There is an art in the garden tour similar to what ninamarie was talking about here in Oshawa/Whitby on June 18th featuring 25 artisans. Tickets are $10. If you are near, let me know and I can tell you the places to buy the tickets. I have never been to one but I plan on attending this one. After reading all these posts and checking out the photos, I'm getting excited about buying or perhaps even making my own art for my garden.
Heather

I recently visited my favorite garden decorating store near the danforth area and I just love the garden decors available now.. from wrought iron bird feeders to 'stone' reliefs on the wall and very interesting garden animals. I yearn for a giant chess piece to place in a key corner of my courtyard garden.. In anycase, I bought quite a few things while I was there. Still, it wasn't the revolutionary arts I was searching for but it is still fun.

I recently spotted a 3' inukshuk presiding over someone's garden. Since our soil is mostly slate, slate & more slate, I thought I'd build one.

Does anyone know a place in the Burlington area to buy cement statues for a good price? By the time they get to the gardening stores they are very expensive and I figure they must be sold cheaper someplace else. When I went to the garden tour in Burlington last week, they had lots of them in the gardens. Lots of angels and one that I loved of an angel holding a cat...my 2 favourite things. Someone had cement faces on the ground amongst the plants. Really nice. I went to a contents sale in Mississauga on Sat. where they had advertised cement statues but they were even more expensive than Holland Park so that was a waste of time.

Many garden statuary are imported so it's best to find out the names of local manufaturers and to ask if they hold factory sales. You just might find one near your area.

My garden find for the day, is surprisingly from a card shop.. Carlton Cards is holding sales and I got my coloured glass windchimes for around $13. I plan to take it apart and not to utilize it as windchimes. (one windchime is enough) I like the look of the sun shining through glass but it's been quite expensive to find stained glass work for outdoor purposes. This way, I can hang the glass on branches around the yard and feel great about the splashes of colours.

Right now I'm regretting not purchasing those really neat statues of plump pigeons to set in one or two corners of the garden. An element of surprise is always a necessary thing for me when designing.

There is a place that makes them in Erin Ontario, near the Stop Light where #124 turns north.

There is also Bernardi concrete produces on Elizabeth Street in Guelph, ON that makes them.

Thanks Jroot....I'll have to take a little roadtrip.

Beware of mirrors in the garden, I'm told. Birds can fly into them and be seriously injured.

So great to hear of others who love garden art. I not only indulge but create it full time now. I just wanted some art for my own garden and always looking for mediums to create with. Curious about colored stuccos I experimented for a year redeveloping exterior stucco into an art medium. Now I create colorful textured weatherproof paintings.
I also have bowling balls in my garden and an old ceramic lamp made into a fountain.

Here is a link that might be useful: www.insideout-art.com