Your backyard consists of lush green grass, a few stately trees, and a flower garden. You enjoy it from your back deck, on which you have a set of wicker furniture and a patio table. But is your landscaping complete?



Landscape "accessories" can offer many unique complements that will really set off your yard. Consider your yard to be just another room of your house...only without a ceiling! Just as you have various knickknacks scattered around to give each room a homey feel, so you can scatter knickknacks around your yard as well.

Before doing so, give a thought to who uses the yard and for what purpose. If you have a lot of kids running around, you won't want to have a lot of fragile stuff lying around where it can easily get broken...or even no-so-fragile stuff that can get run over and end up breaking the kid!

Large buildings - such as turning your deck into an enclosed sunroom, count as landscaping accessories. If you have a constant problem with insects ruining your outdoors picnics and barbecues, consider foiling them with an all-glass enclosed room. It will serve the purpose to keep out excessive heat, and rain, as well.

You can build a conservatory close to the house, or out in the yard, as well, depending on how big your yard is. There's nothing quite like a conservatory to add elegance to a backyard, and give you a place of quiet retreat.

Just as you use sculpture and ornaments to accessorize the rooms in your house, so you can use them to accessorize your back yard. Of course you don't want to stick a statue just anywhere - the ornamentation must fit in with the design of your landscaping and set if off, rather than call attention to itself.

Birdhouses, birdbaths and bird feeders are always a popular accessory, because they encourage our fair-feathered friends to pay us visits. However, be careful of what type of birdfeed you use. Certain birds only like certain types of feed - so if you want to attract cardinals you'd use one kind of feed, for example. Hummingbirds require a specially designed feeder to meet their needs. Birds make a colorful and volatile addition to your backyard, but you'll want to place these accessories near your windows so that you can view them from inside.

If you're of a nautical bent, pieces of driftwood can make interesting conversation pieces, as they are twisted by nature into the most interesting of shapes. Boulders and rocks will serve the purpose as well - single boulders and rocks, as opposed to a collection of rocks for a rock garden, of course - which is a nice accessory in itself.

Statuary adds an elegant finishing touch to your lawn. Surf the web to find a vast array of statues to choose from. is a site that has thousands of statuary on offer. They range from the traditional garden statuary of Greek and Roman gods to the more exotic statues of dragons, 'humorous pigs,' and the like. Garden Fountains is another site with a vast range of not only statuary but fountains to choose from.

Give a thought to lighting. If you have a lot of people visiting your house for parties, for example, you might want to line the path or sidewalk to your door with lamp posts. Silicon Solar is one company of many that offer garden and yard lights for the discriminating customer. Another, unique company is Firefly Magic, which offers lighting and sounds of fire flies. Check them out.

So for the finishing touch to your lawn, give a thought to the accessories.