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Yard Art - A Seriously Tacky Garden

© Carol Wallace

There seem to be two types of tacky yard art in this world.

The first is the truly tacky. You know the kind. People go to the local garden center and fall in love with a glggle of plastic geese. They they add a stone birdbath - fairly serious in style, but next to it, the next time you look, there is a Yard Butt and seventeen things that either spin or make clacking noises.

This is frivolous yard art, with items added strictly because at least on the day of purchase they seemed cute of funny. No one much thinks about it when they decorate this way. They just plunk things down where there is a space.

These are yards that either meet with unqualified approval or a knowing smirk. Rarely is anyone indifferent to the truly tacky.

And then there is the seriously tacky type of yard art. The ones that confuse us because a lot of the separate items in it are tacky - but there is something about it that makes even an art snob want to smile.

Susan Ray's garden in seriously tacky - and a lot of fun. And yes - it has a yard butt, as well as pink flamingoes, plastic snails, gargoyles, a spinning windmill and more.

Says Susan, "I've actually threatened to create a Tacky Garden for years. My husband and I have been slaving for five years on a wonderful but neglected home with over an acre of yard. We decided to use the North side of our yard for this project - partly because it can't be seen from the street, and partly because WE can't see it from the house, and partly because we wanted to pay homage to our "Okie" roots."

Susan took some of her inspiration from the several annual Tacky Yard Art contests that we ran here in Virtually Gardening. She says "Of all the entries you posted, I think the most inspirational ones to me have been "cement garden" and the French snails - I actually found those snails at a closeout sale and have painted them similarly."

OK - You just have to ask. What did the neighbors think? Were they indifferent? Delighted? Shocked? Did they want to drum the Rays out of the neighborhood? Or did they start adding yard art to their own yards as well.

The answer is - not quite any of the above.

Susan says, "Our neighbors and friends have reacted initially by being horrified - and then joining right in! I've come home to find "donations" left in the garden, and this is just hilarious. We have even started exhibiting the donated art with little signs that (with a nod to museum exhibits) name the artwork, media, and donor. "

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