An attractive garden is more than just plants. Well-positioned garden ornaments create points of interest and transform the appearance of the garden.

Garden accessories that bring life to a garden landscape can range from diminutive garden gnomes to a piece of outdoor art.

Decorating a garden with an ornamental planter, statuette or piece of garden art is no different from dressing up, says Barb Gergel, a master gardener and landscape designer.

"Garden ornaments are like choosing earrings to go with a dress," Gergel says.

"It's the last piece, the exclamation point of a garden. It's what brings certain gardens to the next level."

But she cautions that the elements used must be in context. Gardeners should choose the pieces with attention to texture and height. Also, they should repeat the style of the house the garden is attached to.

"The design always continues on from the house," she says. "Attractive gardens are never an accident."

The placement of garden ornaments is just as important. Instead of having them placed indiscriminately about, she suggests placing them where people will "find" them as they wander about the garden.

"You need to introduce an element of surprise, something that is unexpected," says Gergel, a member of the Victoria Master Gardener Association.

She says carefully chosen ornaments also add interest and structure to a garden in the winter, when the plants have died down. Different ornaments would command attention at different times of the year.

If garden art is meant to make people take a second look, then there is no substitute for a 2.7-metre-long mermaid suspended in the air leading to the garden of a local artist.

The fibreglass-cast mermaid's most public venue was at Expo 86 in Vancouver. It now hangs two metres up in the air as both a focal point and to discourage theft -a fate that befell another mermaid created by Darcy Gould, a local artist.

This mermaid was traded back to the artist for a bronze sculpture by a homeowner who discovered the piece left behind in a house where the tenants had skipped out on their rent. The mermaid now spends her days dazzling the occasional passerby.

"I often see cars driving by that suddenly stop and back up to take a second look," says Gould, an artist of 42 years who lives in Saanich. "It's not your typical garden ornament."

More typical ornaments in gardens range from the ubiquitous bird bath to monuments. These days, clay pots, concrete statues and other heavy ornaments have generally given way to objects made of plastic and resin that are lighter. This makes them easier to move about. Because of mass production, they are also a fraction of the cost. Ornaments can also be found in objects made from wood or metal, such as benches and stakes.

But it is not the number of objects that make a garden sparkle, it is choosing what is the most appropriate to the garden itself.

"Statuary and other garden ornaments are an integral part of gardenscape," says Anna Saunders, a landscape designer who works out of the Blenkinsop Road Gardenworks store. "Sometimes it is a matter of personal taste. But for some gardens, certain ornaments are an absolute must.

"For example, one would expect to see urns in an Italian or French-style garden."

While she is happy to design a garden to a customer's tastes, she cautions against a garden style that doesn't suit the house's architecture or age. The most obvious juxtaposition would be an Oriental garden alongside a ranch-style house.

Garden elements don't always solely mean exclusively man-made objects.

Frequently it comes with the careful placement of natural elements, such as rocks, shells or wooden posts.

Garden styles go in and out of fashion depending on the popularity of different house architectural styles.

In Victoria gardens with a Victorian theme have always been popular because of the historical tie with English gardens and architecture. The current Arts and Crafts style also lends itself to the same gardens as well.

Despite the obvious popularity, Saunders says more often than not people don't observe strict rules -and that is good.

"The best combinations out there that I have seen and worked on are those where one combines natural elements and man-made ornaments together," Saunders says. "It's the mix of styles that works and allows the most fun."

parrais@timescolonist.com