Ooooh lookey there!

Focal Points in the Garden

By Amy McDowell

The idea of creating focal points in the garden troubled me for years. I just wanted a garden to goof around in. (And if it looked good, all the better to impress others.) Adding specific focal points sounded like a demanding task. I wondered who’s stuffy idea it was that a garden needs a focal point, anyway.

Then one winter, whiling away the snowy hours with a stack of garden magazines, I noticed something. In the gorgeous glossy garden photos, my eye was always drawn to the single man-made element in the shot. Whether it was a birdbath, a bench or a statue, the photo would not have had the impact if it was just a garden bursting with plants. Playing a game in my mind, I’d picture the garden without the man-made item. I realized that without the “thing,” the garden would’ve never caught my eye. At last, I was beginning to understand how important a focal point can be in a garden.

Scouting out flea markets and antique stores, I bought every cheap milk can, metal watering can and wagon wheel I could get my hands on. Around every turn along the garden path, I’d tuck something in among the flowers. Often, the perennials—iris or goat’s beard or whatever—were so huge that the milk can or wagon wheel nestled into the flowers would nearly disappear. Just enough of it would poke out to create a subtle focal point. Visitors to the garden probably never realized what it was that gave the garden a rustic charm. The man-made elements throughout completed the picture perfect garden.

Anything will work—a pot, urn, sundial, gate, arbor, birdbath, bench, statue, fountain, wagon or antique plow. They say specimen plants can be used as a focal point. Although that sugary pink weeping crabapple tree may steal the show while it’s in bloom, the garden’s focal point may shift as the crabapple blooms fade and a clump of peonies or a climbing rose nearby bursts into color. Dark burgundy foliage on a Japanese maple or a purple smoke bush or the sparkling variegation or lime green foliage of a hosta can be used as focal points. But plants used as focal points are subtle and ever changing. I’m sticking with the simple man-made stuff that adds year-round accent.