Liven up your landscape with art

By G. Owen Yost

It's hard to improve on the beauty inherent in a wildflower meadow or a grove of old trees, but anybody can enhance his or her home landscape instantly by adding a unique, personal touch of art. Whether it's an addition of a carved stone animal of some type or the old-time charm of an antique horse collar you discovered in Grandpa's attic, a carefully selected and well-placed piece of art will add an incredibly special touch to your yard.

There's only one simple rule for selecting art for your landscape - it has to please you, because you will be looking at it every day. The opinion of your co-worker or somebody down the street shouldn't matter much. So, before your pick a piece of art, here are some guidelines you might want to weigh in your mind (or not):

Is it really 'art'?

The question really is; do you like it? If so, nothing else should matter (aside from outright pornography, bothersome lights and such). My father displayed the rusty plumbing of an old industrial washing machine in his yard. I grew very fond of its unintended gracefulness, although I rarely told visitors what it was.

Art can be found in odd, unlikely places. For collectibles, scour attics, barns, garages and such. Flea markets, large garage sales and scrap metal junkyards also are places you could stumble onto something interesting, even if you're not exactly sure what it is.

Size

You've probably seen "public art" in a plaza or outside a museum. These pieces of art usually range from car-size to house-size. That's ideal for a large space, but a typical home landscape is smaller, more private and personal. Something larger than a garbage can may visually overpower a residential landscape.

Placement

Where you put the art depends a lot on the object itself and your yard's layout. There are no strict rules, but consider both the location and how it blends with the rest of the yard. Will the object be placed alongside some sort of path leading to an even nicer view? Wherever you place it, let it be part of the landscape, instead of appearing like it just happened to fall off a truck in that spot. Simply draping an existing branch in front of the piece could be a way to integrate it into the landscape.

Will the object be the focal point of your entire yard? In that case you should consider its background, much as a museum considers a picture's frame. I prefer not to give the viewer a completely unobstructed look at the art, blending it with the natural landscape instead.

Climate

The weather is almost always a factor. Unlike flowers, art in the landscape has to survive the changing seasons. Yet its background and lighting vary continually and dramatically.

In the residential landscape, think about the path you walk through the yard, even if walking takes just 10 seconds. Actually doing it (paper and pencil in hand) sometimes helps. This could help you recognize especially receptive locations, particularly attractive plantings or strategic resting places.

Carrying this further, you could learn where you might put a bench or place a "node."

A well-placed bench can transform your yard from something to look at into a place to linger. A bench itself can be "art." It doesn't have to be intricately carved or peppered with valuable tiles. The best bench for the landscape blends comfortably with the natural surroundings and beckons you to sit for a spell.

My advice is to simply have fun. Let your creativity run wild and really stretch your imagination.

Owen Yost is an area landscape architect specializing in designing low-maintenance landscapes while incorporating native plants with hardscape. He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Keep Denton Beautiful and the Native Plant Society of Texas. His Denton office is at 4516 Coyote Point; call 940-382-2099 or 940-383-9655 or e-mail him at Yost87@charter.net