A Glossary of Common and Not so Common Lawn Ornaments

This week on the blog, lawn ornaments.  Let's start with a quick review of the common and not so common objects used for lawn ornamentation.--R

• Bird bath: A structure designed to hold water for birds to bathe in or drink.
• Bird feeder: stake, post, or column mounted types.
• Nest box: Bird House--A small house for a bird normally made of wood and on a stake.
• Bathtub Madonna: (my personal favorite): A statue of Mary, the mother of Jesus, placed in a bathtub half buried under the ground. Statues of Mary are most often made of white concrete but are sometimes painted with a blue garment.
• Garden gnome: A small, generally colorful gnome statuette.
• Lawn jockey: An often diminutive statuette of a black horse attendant dressed in slave clothing, also called a Jocko. Groomsmen were often used as hitching posts. The "Cavalier" variation typically depicts a white figure.
• Human Form:  Examples of human form lawn ornaments include the lawn jockey and groomsman. Examples of two dimensional human form lawn ornaments include renditions of Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch people. A variation of the Pennsylvania Dutch human form is a depiction of an older female bending over a garden revealing her undergarments.
• Yard globe: A light-reflective sphere, as large as 16" in diameter and generally displayed on top of a support structure. Also called Gazing balls.
• Animal forms: Popular animal statues such as frogs, turtles, rabbits, or ducks cast in plastic or cement.
• Plastic flamingo: (another favorite) A generally life-size replica of a pink flamingo. According to some, the origin of the plastic flamingo was in 1946 with the company Union Products in its "Plastics for the Lawn" product line. Their collection included dogs, ducks, frogs, and a flamingo.
• Whirligig: An often animalistic sculpture characterized by at least one rotating member often designed to appear as a body-part of the sculpture.
• Spinners: Usually shaped like flowers with petals that spin in the wind. Variations include birds or insects with spinning wings.
• Jigglers: Plastic or metal flowers, birds, and insects fitted on spring loaded stakes so that they jiggle when the wind blows.
• Francis of Assisi: A saint associated with nature and animals.
• Lighthouses: Small-scale representations of local lighthouses are popular in coastal areas.
• Topiary: Shrubs that are sculpted to look like birds, planes, superman, you name it.
• Statuary: Concrete or stone statues of gods, goddesses, and people.
• Found art: Recycled found objects. Can include toilet seats, farm equipment, anything!
• Archeological finds: This includes half buried pots and objects that look as if they were just pulled out of the ground.