ADDING GARDEN ACCENTS

Adding garden decor and yard accents to your landscape design can transform a ho-hum garden spot into a beautiful work of art. This also allows you to use more of your creative, unique personality. By adding a birdbath, sundial, solar lights, figurines/statutes or other outdoor decor,
your garden can take on a new life.

Water features, such as birdbaths, water fountains or ponds, not only adds a focal point, they also provide water for birds and sometimes other critters. Running water especially is a good way to attract birds. Plus, they are quite entertaining when they're splashing around.

Well placed outdoor sundials will always have others looking and trying to figure out if they really do keep time.

Some of people's favorites are garden figurines and statues. Pictured are a few different ways to use within your garden spot.








Make your own glazing ball from an old bowling ball by just painting it and putting it on a stand or just within your flower bed. Or use rocks to add just that right touch that pulls your garden spot together.

For more ideas on garden decor take a gander at what other gardeners are using in their gardens and yard. You can literally create you very own outdoor oasis by accessorizing.

What's your favorite way of using garden decor?

Bring In The Hummingbirds

From their tiny size, to the way they can hover in mid air and eat at the same time, hummingbirds have to be by far the most fascinating birds there are. Having these little feathery visitors to your garden spot is exciting and provides wonderful entertainment watching them flitter and swoop.

Getting hummingbirds to visit your garden takes some planning, especially in choosing plants and flowers. Hummers are attracted to colorful and nectar rich flowers. They use an incredible amount of energy per day and need sugar rich food that comes from nectar. They also like to eat insects which are often abundant in any garden. A mixture of annuals and perennials offers a wide variety of flowers to choose from. Below are just some of the choices you have that are magnets for these little birds.

One of the most popular is the trumpet vine because of the tubular shape of the flowers, the color (red or reddish orange) and the nectar. Hummers will spend a good deal of time going from flower to flower, then leave only to return later. Pictured is a honeysuckle vine growing next to a fence, which is similar to the trumpet vine but much more of a creeper. Consider bright red petunias (annuals) to accent the taller vines. Columbine is another popular flower that comes in different colors and also has the tubular flower and abundant nectar. Pictured is just one of the many colors available.

Delphiums, hollyhocks , bee balm, lobelia, cardinal vine, rose of Sharon, fuschia and butterfly bushes all attract the little hummers. Be sure to pick flowers, plants, vines and bushes that vary when they bloom and for how long. Hummers tend to arrive in April and stay around well into September in zone 5 and longer in the southern zones. So it very important that they have a constant source of food.

Placing hummingbird feeders in the garden and throughout your landscape design will also provide more food sources. Be sure to keep the sugar water fresh especially when it's very warm outside. You can also put up a window feeder and you can bet they will use it! Watching them sit on the little perch while they (and you) eat or just flitter and eat is a real treat.

As you can tell, you can design an entire garden spot just for the hummingbirds and butterflies as they are nectar lovers as well. Be sure to accessorize with some bright garden accents to help pull your design together. Plus, you have the added benefit of being the envy of the neighborhood for the beauty you created in your flower garden.