The Complete Handbook of Lawn Ornaments & Garden Sculptures

Chapter 1: Understanding Lawn Ornaments & Garden Sculptures

Lawn ornaments and garden sculptures occupy a peculiar place in the built environment. They are at once the most personal expression of a homeowner's taste and, professionally, a significant line of business for landscape contractors, garden centers, and event companies. Yet for all their ubiquity - from the concrete deer on a suburban front lawn to the cast-stone lion flanking a corporate entrance - few products are purchased with less information. This chapter establishes what the category actually is, how the products are made and distributed, and why the practical details matter for anyone whose living or serious hobby touches this trade.

Walk through any residential neighborhood built after 1950 and you will see the archaeology of American taste in lawn decoration. The 1950s brought pink flamingos, molded in polyethylene from a design by Don Featherstone, which sold in the millions. The 1960s and 1970s saw a boom in precast concrete statuary - birdbaths, gazing balls on pedestals, and devotional figures - as suburban homeownership expanded. The 1980s introduced resin and fiberglass as lighter, cheaper alternatives, opening the door to larger pieces like deer, horses, and life-sized figures that would have been impossible to produce in concrete at a consumer price point. Today, the market has bifurcated. At the low end, mass-produced resin pieces sell for under 50 dollars at big-box retailers. At the high end, artisan-cast bronze and carved natural stone command five figures from landscape architects and public art consultants.