Outdoor Decorating
Creating a winning garden for the moving family

By Joan Gaither

     Your front porch should set the stage. The possibilities are endless: a terra cotta urn by the door for a Mediterranean look, half a whiskey barrel for a country look, or ceramic for an oriental look. Many of these can be purchased in a “faux,” –– a term meaning fake –– design.
     I have two urns on either side of my front door, and I change the flowers with the seasons (geraniums in the spring, poinsettias at Christmas, etc.). Put the flowers in plastic pots or baskets and set them in the urns. Put rocks under the pot and Spanish moss around the top to hide the fact that the plants are not really planted in the urn.
     Accessorize your back yard as you would a room. A small water fountain is easy to install and can be taken down quickly and easily. The atmosphere it provides is terrific.
     I have used lattice to design my own fence. I once put lattice in front of a bedroom window to solve a privacy concern. I painted the lattice to match my front door, which was always a different color from the house.
     While you’re decorating the front and back yards, think of your windows. Germany is particularly famous for window boxes. Consider painting or staining them. Wrought-iron planters, or faux stone containers, work as well. All of these are easy to put up and take down when you move.
     If you’re lucky enough to end up with an overseas tour, don’t forget the incredible bargains, like wheelbarrows from Germany or vendor’s carts from Asia. Fill them with plants in or out of their pots.
     When setting out a container garden, use the same principles of design as in your rooms — think a variety of colors at a variety of heights. An uneven number of pots is the rule of thumb.
     I have always tried to take plants with me when we moved. If that’s not possible, plants make great goodbye gifts. Our family still remembers a move to Washington, D.C., with two kids and a U-Haul filled with plants, including four very temperamental Ficus trees that my children swore I gave more attention to than to them. Three of the miserable trees died. I found great pleasure in chopping up the dead plants for the garbage men.
     One “outdoor” item I have always tried to use sparingly was wind chimes. When we lived in Hawaii, in a heavy wind, the neighborhood sounded like an out-of-tune metal band.
     My most unusual outdoor decoration was actually a family pet –– a live cockatiel named Binky. Every morning we hung his antique cage in a tree by our front porch. Unfortunately, we had to move him because he had a bad habit of whistling at the troops when they ran by our home during PT. The commander “suggested” Binky be banished to the back yard.