Funky Garden Lighting

Bottle tree as dusk falls

It’s a pity to banish string lighting to the holiday season. Rick uses it year-round to add color and funkiness to his huge bottle tree. As the evening draws in and light begins to fade, the glow intensifies.

Bottle tree when night intensifies the colorful string lights

Many southern gardens have colorful bottle trees, Rick’s included. Add string lights for a funky night time effect.

“I love the fact that Jackson’s Mississippi Museum of Art hosted an installation of bottle trees – a whole forest of them – a couple of winters ago.” says Rick. “A bottle tree adds instant southern style and it’s as valid a form of folk art as any other.”

Garden accessories: bird art

Rick is always on the lookout for new garden ornamentation, much of it repurposed or hand-made. His ‘treasure’ may well be your trash. Over the years, his garden has become home to some colourful bird art.

Pink flamingos – love them or hate them – appear in plastic and more upmarket metal forms. But you’d find it harder to identify some of the species of bird art Rick has collected over the years.

These lugubrious birds below are positioned to face arriving guests, channeling the geese ancient Romans used to guard their homes. Fashioned from corrugated metal, they help decorate the foot of a bottle tree.

And, as you might have spotted, another small pink flamingo has sneaked in on the act too.