The Welcome Mat

Yard Decorations
Know when to say when 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is probably why some yards look beautiful and others look like a yard sale.

A beautifully landscaped lawn takes careful planning. You wouldn't build a house without blueprints, so why would you build your outdoor living space without a plan? As you plan, keep the style and location of your home in mind, and pick a complementing theme. A yard filled with white Greco-Roman statues, for instance, would look out of place in a modern suburban neighborhood.

If you think your yard looks empty, don't just fill the spaces with lawn ornaments. Instead, consider adding a plant. Even if you don't have a green thumb, there are plenty of low-maintenance plants that would look lovely.

For the most part, your yard decorations should blend in with existing plants. Your decorations should be small accents, not the main event. Tuck lawn gnomes and such into places where they look natural, and for the most part, get decorations that have colors you would find in nature.

If you love the plastic pink flamingos, go ahead and get yourself a pair – they add a fun quirkiness to your yard. But just because wild flamingos travel in large flocks doesn't mean that yours have to. Your neighbors will enjoy them more if they're used sparingly as opposed to an army of birds that they might feel inclined to protect themselves against.

Not sure if you have too many yard decorations? If any of the following can be used to describe your yard, you should probably consider eliminating some of the items displayed on your property.

• Your decorations outnumber the plants
  
• You have trouble or are unable to mow the lawn
  
• People approach you wondering if everything is for sale
  
• Yard decorations are less than 4 feet apart from each other (excluding groupings that need to be close together)
  
• You or someone has tripped over one of your yard decorations