We have such a teeny-tiny backyard, which is very frustrating for someone who adores yard art! Still, I've managed to inject some personality into the space. We kept one of the old wooden loungers that my Dad built and use it to hold a fairly large flower planter. Then we bought a little water fountain in memory of Gary, and put that beside the lounger, and a shepherd's hook behind the lounger, which holds a hanging basket of flowers in the summer. That's all we could fit in there, but it's a very soothing, pretty sight to look out at from my chair in the living room.

Edelweiss, I checked out your slide-show...oh, what a delightful lovely oasis! Every little piece of art adds so much to the serentiy; it would be my favourite place to sit and "be"...to pray, or read a good book or just soak in the tranquility.

Thank you for sharing, I really enjoyed my "visit" to your garden! Wish we could share a cup of tea (and apple strudel?) there...

Eagle, love the idea of using the chair as a planter. It looks beautiful.

Everyone must view Elelwiess's slide show. The music is so much fun and the photos are precious. I love your shed with the angel and the window boxes. Also like your little pond. Girl, you must live in that yard. It's so welcoming! Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

I've just begun to get into yard art the past couple years. Maybe this is the time I'll take pictures and share them.

What a neat slide show. Thanks for putting this together Edelweiss. Did you need special software?

Eagle, I love that idea of using a lounger as a flower planter. And I love the water fountain. We have a bubble fountain in our little pond. When the wind blows it makes awesome shapes. Oh yes Eagle, warm appelstrudel with vanilla cream sauce. ..
hmmm if you come visit I promise to bake you and your Hubby your very own Apfelstrudel. And I promise that we won't have to move for at least three hours after eating it.

I got to give Hubby the credit for our garden. It’s his hobby. His real pride is our lawn. I think he could compete in an English lawn contest. I hope you can share pictures too Dotsie. I would love to see your Cherry trees.

Meredith I used this slide show for my homepage as well. But I’m having problems with the music. When it repeats it get jumbled up. My computer guru will be here next week, and can hopefully straighten it out. You can download the slide show for a low cost at:

http://bmsev.com/software/web-diashow/

If you have problems figuring it out, let me know. But maybe he has a translator program.

I absolutely love the slide show, EW and EH, love the lounger planter....such a sweet idea! Wow, I just got lost in it all. It's a little early here. We're barely beginning to do things outside. One thing we have done is last weekend we put in two little flower gardens near the entrance of our driveway. We've so enjoyed coming and going now...very pleasant! Great ideas, everyone!

I am not into yard art..YET. But I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread. And I do love looking at other people´s yard art when I go for my walks.We had a local artist in the neighborhood, who has moved now, unfortunately. But every year..at the end of the summer, he would put something up in his garden. His last piece was a boat..the Pinto..made out of slabs of stone..even the sail was a stone slab. It was amazing. And it´s name made me think of the Pinto and the Santa Maria..were these the names of Columbus´ ships when he sailed to the New World?

Unfortunately, I was (well, WE were) too eager for Spring. We had temps in the 80's a week ago....we got so excited that we planted two small gardens at the driveway entrance...worked hard and planted with love. Today we find that frost killed every one of them and we're sad....and I'm feeling dumb because I KNEW better! It's rarely safe here this early and we should have held off a month or so.

Oh, Ladyjane, we did that a few years ago...same thing. The Garden Centers were all open, and everything looked so beautiful, and we had been having such gorgeous weather. So we bought, planted, even covered them a few nights. But we still lost the whole batch to frost. Now we wait until the May 24th weekend.

Even today, we passed by the Garden Ctr and I saw the hanging baskets full of colourful blooms - I had to exercise incredible restraint to stop myself from buying anything.

My condolences, Ladyjane, I know that sadness...

I know Eagle Heart, how disappointing it is!!! It was the very same thing with us. We would drive by the nurseries and they were filled with beautiful flowers and plants, all outside. The only thing I can come up with is that we put in such a horrible winter and then it turned into summer right away. We just got so eager for these things that hubby came home with his truck full of these beauties. Never again. From now on we WILL wait for the fear of frost to pass!