SHARING SECRETS: Garden Art
- k-england
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Edited by Cathy Tylka, for Let's Talk Plants! December 2025.
Question for Sharing Secrets for this month…
Can you share vignettes or items from your garden, in words and if possible, pictures, that are made with a sculptural element. Or maybe you can just share pottery or items you use to amuse yourself. In other words, your version of Garden Art!
(Some have said this is a great question! Well, we have Ida Rigby to thank for this. If you have a question or thought, share it with me and I will share will the SDHS gang! And, in case you don't know why we want and need your zip code, it's so we can know what climate zone you are in!)
Joan Herskowitz of 92024 shares…
... My garden art was created by accident. A dinner guest accidentally pushed his chair back too far and knocked over a small vase. He felt terrible but I told him not to worry about it and that I could now use the top of the vase in the garden. I subsequently put it in a pot of succulents with plants coming out of the top. Broken crockery morphed into garden art. Â
Nancy Mueller of 92110, states, ...
... I made this mosaic steppingstone in a class offered at Mira Costa College.
The steppingstone came from Home Depot. The stained glass was provided by the instructor as part of the materials charge. I don't remember if I bought the grout or if it was provided by the instructor. Here is the link to the current class (I took it several years ago)
Ida Rigby of 92074, reports…
...Over the years, and increasingly as I want to add points of interest that will not require water, I have enjoyed adding sculptures, bird houses and ceramic pieces to the garden.Â
The English cocker reminded me of a garden tour to England. Years later she even has the lichens and mosses that time adds to sculptures in English gardens.
Like most tourists, I fell in love with Ganesha in Nepal and added him to the garden. In the spring he has a backdrop of Mexican evening primroses and a pinkie climbing rose.
My niece, an artist, has made pieces for the garden, including this driftwood bench under a Chitalpa tree.
A llama watches over the pond in an ever-expanding stand of mother of thousands.Â
An aloe brevifolia is the perfect crown for a Buddha. Â
I decided to get a few mallard decoys to enliven the pond. They are a serene presence as they slowly move about the pond propelled by the wind. I also learned a lot about duck hunting as I explored options.
Frog fishermen chat shaded by a hechtia umbrella.
My niece made a rebar sculpture, which reminded me of a nest, so I put in some blades of our native deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) and egg-like river rocks that surface every time we dig in the garden.  We are on that widespread San Diego stratum that is rock and clay. Perhaps, incongruously two roosters watch over the nest (I am still looking for hens I like to replace them). They are in the vegetable garden and are meant to suggest that this area of the garden is our farm.
My most recent acquisition is a Talavera puffer fish.  Â
Aloe dorothea, (Sunset Aloe) will turn red in the inland sun, and will complement the colors of the puffer fish. I enjoy watching for pieces like this, which show that the people who painted them really enjoyed the process. They make me smile.
Lucy Warren, comments…
... Garden Gremlin. His first career was as a kiln god but was retired to help protect the garden.
I've been doing ceramics (playing in the mud) for a long time. Making the kiln god was just a fun assignment. It was quick and silly and fun. I decided to make something weird and ugly. It was retired when a new class began with new kiln gods, so I felt it was a good idea to have him lurk in my front garden to protect it. I'm quite surprised that it has not been taken, but it blends into the foliage, so I don't know how many people have discovered it. I hope they will laugh. So far it has not been disturbed.
Susi Torre-Bueno of 92084 relates…
I've been creating raised display platforms from leftover house construction materials and putting large planters on top to create interest at eye level. Most of them are about 3' tall, and the pot adds another 18" or so, and the plants rise above that.
Terri and Sam Seat of 91902, responded...  Â
... We have quite a few "yard art" pieces. However, we are sending only three pictures, so not to take up more than our fair share.
This planter was purchased, while at a wine and art fundraiser in Lake Arrowhead. Don't you love his hair? He gets hairs cuts periodically, as it grows.
This kitchen stool was rescued from a friend’s mother’s garage. Sam painted it and we placed it among a planter of aloes and agaves. Looks like it needs a new paint job!
And this is Toby. A friend had him at her business and no longer wanted him, so gifted him to us. He seems happy in his new home surrounded by palms.
Cathy Tylka of 92026 - her secret is out… I have Yard Art!
It started out when a girlfriend had this 1890s single and a half bed frame in her garage. If you say you’ve never heard of this, it’s probably because you were not around in the 1890s. It had a huge octopus margarita agave in the middle, but it outgrew the bed and then bloomed and now is gone, so restarting with blue agave, which you cannot see, and other succulents who have decided to live there!   Â
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And here we have an old milk can, a portion of a farm implement and old fire hose wheel, which I use to outline the outside of the front succulent garden. I could show you so many more, mostly they are rusty and have character. They are placed on the garden, but we don’t want plants on them, because we like to use the juxtaposition of the plant gang and aging dignity!
 But that doesn’t count for wood and this lovely cactus, which has never been happier!
Karen England of 92084 has an uncle in 91740 (Glendora) with bona fide garden art ...
...but she has what Mary Randolph Carter calls Garden Junk!
I have always admired my art and plant collector uncle's garden up in LA County, but I had to stop telling him how much I admired it when, 15 years ago, I admired a garden art piece made out of an old hub cap and other assorted metal pieces and he gave it to me! It turned out that his brother, another of my uncles, made it. It is a double treasure in my garden reminding me of two beloved men.
Recently I had to hold my tongue, while touring my uncle's garden - there was so much I loved. I thought you might want to see...
Question for next month comes from Tynan Wyatt…
Does anyone have tips for a constructed greenhouse? What size did you go with? Materials? What has been the upkeep? What would you do differently?
Why are you seeing this? Because you might not remember that we have it.
The funds garnered from this enterprise is to support our scholarships. And, since it’s the Holiday Season, you might want to use this for a dual purpose!!!
