I love and appreciate beautiful landscaping, but don’t have the time or talent to do anything very elaborate. Fortunately, if you have a nice focal piece to work with like a lovely statue, monument or bird bath, the setting is not too difficult to execute. Here are a few outdoor shrines we spotted in our local community. The fourth photo shows how a family simply placed a statue of Christ in the crook of an old tree for a very nice effect.
A few more from local neighborhoods:
With just a few paving stones and some well-chosen plants, it’s easy to put together an attractive little spot in your yard. Here are some ideas I assembled from the web:
UPS will soon be delivering a classical statue of Saint Joseph holding the Christ child. My plan is to set it in a small half-moon shaped bed edged with stones that are arranged in a staggered pattern. Lilies would be perfect to complete the flower bed.
What are your gardening plans this spring? Have you ever thought about adding a shrine or memorial to your yard or garden?
Love it!
I really do love the idea – and really really wish I had the talent/patience/money and time (to my husbands shagrin)! Gardening is sooooo much work.
Honestly, I really want to help the kids create a vegetable garden. I think it’s would be great for them to have something they create to take care of. Plus, it would be good cause it would sustain us (a bit) and perhaps we could have enough to store.
But read my comment above. It’s a lot of work – and my time is already maxed. i would really love to do it though.
I do love the idea of the garden statues – and love love love the Christ statue.
Gardening IS a lot of work, and so we’ve learned to scale back and not take on too much each year. This little flower bed and statue will be my main project this spring, and then we’ll work on the veggies as a family. 🙂 If you want to grow something easy and very rewarding, tomatoes are winners. And you can relegate them to pots on the patio; no tilling or weeding needed! ~Anne
I really like your arrangement idea! I agree that gardening is a lot of work, which is why I promote adding statues, ornaments and other stone work to your garden in order to minimize maintenance as much as possible while making the design/layout as beautiful and functional as possible. If you don’t mind me asking, where did you order the statue of Saint Joseph holding the Christ child from?
Hi, Janice. Thanks for the compliments! We ordered our statue from Marianland out of League City, TX. They have been in business since 1985. When it arrives and I get it all set up, I’ll do another blog post. ~Anne
I love the Christ in the tree! I’ve wanted a Buddha in my yard for ages, with a water feature. Did you see the lotus pond in this month’s BHG? Lovely.
I’ve always wanted a lotus or goldfish pond. So relaxing and beautiful! ~Anne
The statuary is lovely! I have to admit, after spending time in the Grotto at St. Leo University, I’d dearly love to have a peaceful shrine to the Virgin set up in the garden! (I’d just have to get someone else to do the gardening because I kill plants.)
Fellow plant killers, unite! I wonder who our patron saint would be? ~Anne
We love to drive around and look at other people’s landscaping and gardens for inspiration. Thanks for the ideas! Hope you do more gardening posts as this is what I spend a lot of time on now with kids grown….
Hi Anne – I was really glad to see your suggestion about adding a shrine or memorial to your yard or garden. I am from a big family, and in the last few years, we have lost several of our beloved family members. A garden stone was given to me when my Father passed on, and I find myself stopping to read it over and over and finding comfort in the words. The words are below. Thank you for your article.
Our family chain is broken and nothing seems the same
but as God calls us one by one the Chain will link again.
I didn’t know that statues can add to the beautiful landscape of a home. My mom wants to upgrade the look of our patio and garden. My sister suggested buying outdoor garden statues and shared this article with her.
Always like to see a blog that inspires people to buy a garden statue or provides them with an idea of how to place them!