In many a modern ruin there are fragments of fallen walls and pillars of forgotten halls. These artifacts of architecture past are often quite sculptural, even beautiful More often than not, they serve to add embellishment to the landscape; providing structure, verticality, and weight to the surrounding space. This expanded understanding of ornament can be applied to the modern garden as well.
Scour the dumps and sides of the road for old, ambiguous, and interesting objects to use in your own garden display. Be careful, though. There is a fine divide between the place where trash ends and art begins and mistakes can be made.
Here are some general rules to follow:
1. Control the placement and orientation intentionally, even if it is meant to seem accidental.
2. Do not clutter with too many artifacts, lest the garden take on a junkyard appeal.
3. Contrast the artifact with something gardenesque or clean and green. (The ruins of the Rievaulx Abbey demonstrate the clean edge of mowed lawn.)
4. Make it abstract. Ordinary things can become extraordinary when exposed to a new angle, use, or orientation. Stay away from the literal or the overly recognizable. Do not repurpose toilets, for example. They will always look like toilets no matter how many petunias line the bowl.
5. Create hierarchy and balance by either giving way to the artifact as a dominant view in the garden, or allowing harmonizing structure to serve as a counter-weight. Haphazard placement and lack of balance will bring out the trash in your treasure.
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