How to Set Up Aesthetic Focus in Your Garden

Making your garden bright and colorful is easy, but making it into art means you have to apply a few art and décor principles. The most important thing to have in your garden is a focus, the place where you look first, and the thing that everything else is meant to complement or contrast with. There are many options for great garden centerpieces, from massive living hedge sculptures, to ponds, 100 year old oaks, to intricate statues. However depending on the size of your yard and the size of your wallet there are a few options that look wonderful and are more accessible than other options. Here are my favorite three.

Fire Pit

A nice centrally located fire pit has multiple functions in that it can provide a splash of unexpected color in your garden otherwise green yard while also providing a great place to congregate outside at night while grilling up some sausages. You can opt for the more modern looking fire bowl or the old classic stone fire pit. If they’re done right either one looks absolutely gorgeous. Depending on what type of fire pit you use you can give your home a taste of modern edge or rustic lumberjack.

Fountain

A fountain can be a bit more expensive than a fire pit, but if you live in a perpetually hot climate it can help to lower the overall temperature in your yard. Bubbling water is a classic garden feature and will help give your garden an air of calm and relaxation. Additionally if you like animals you can populate the water with some small fish. Depending on your range of income a fountain can be rustic or downright opulent. You can let the water gush out of a moss and algae covered rock formation or you can have it shoot into the air from an elaborate statue depending on your tastes.

Flower berm

Probably the most popular option for a centerpiece is a strategically placed flower berm. The trick to turning a flower bed into a centerpiece is location and configuration. A flowerbed placed at the side of your property will have background pieces placed toward the back with flowers and accent pieces in the front. A centerpiece is usually round (ish) and focuses toward its own center which should be raised. As For example you might have some bright flowers near the outside, graduating to some decorative bushes as you move in and capped by a gorgeous tree growing out of the very center and top.

Drawing Focus to your centerpiece

All of the previous centerpieces can be classed up by setting up a stone pathway that travels toward your centerpiece in a straight line and then terminates in a ring around it. As you step outside and look the path will help to draw your eye out toward it and make the whole look more concise and orderly. Also avoid putting asymmetrical features (like a single lone tree) near the center as this will draw focus away from the piece.

Author's Bio: Mackenzie Kupfer has been a lover of all things green since the age of six when she began gardening with her Nana. She is currently an online publisher for the outdoor garden decor site avantgardendecor.com. In her free time, Mackenzie enjoys attending garden shows, hiking, and gardening with her son.