Choosing Stone Statuary

Some common mistakes gardeners make when choosing stone statuary and garden ornaments are too many statues or too large statues for small spaces, and too few or inappropriate sizes for large spaces. When you see statues in a garden or landscape center, they look appropriate for the allotted size, and professional decorators choose coordinating elements to make the display more enticing for consumers. Yet when you place the same pieces in your space, they somehow look out of place. Unless you plan on replicating the display, including paring down or resizing your space to the exact measurements used in the garden center, you'll need to plan before you purchase stone statuary. Follow these simple guidelines when choosing stone statuary for your unique garden or landscape:

• Browse landscape magazines, home and garden publications, and online references that include pictures of statues in gardens. Examine how statuary enhances or weakens the landscape and then determine what kind of statuary will augment your own garden.
• Choose the places in your landscape where you'd like to place statuary and note the color schemes provided by nature. Choose statues with colors that will enhance your foliage, patio, and yard.
• Measure the spaces where you want to place statuary and take the measurements with you to the home improvement or landscape center. Make sure that you determine the appropriate size statuary for your space.
• Take a picture of the space where you want to place a statue and take the picture with you to the store for reference.

I wince each time I drive by my neighbor's house because he has so much landscape clutter in his front yard it detracts from the beauty of his home. Instead of a few tasteful focal pieces, Steve has yard gnomes, frogs, two large deer, a couple of white stone ducks with color kerchiefs circling their necks, and an old Conestoga wagon. His yard looks like a perpetual yard sale. When decorating with stone statuary, keep it simple and avoid clutter. Consider the size of your landscaping space and the size of your home when choosing pieces, and keep them size-appropriate. Whenever possible, create a frame for your statuary of existing shrubbery, trees, or garden walls. The idea when decorating with stone statuary is to enhance your landscape, and not overpower it.