Page 27 - FEB2020

art in the garden - sculptures

If you’re anything like my mom, your
garden has a variety of metal birds and
creatures peeping up from under the
vegetation. Its becoming quite
common now to see vendors on road-
sides with all sorts of attractive
sculptures that could easily be blended
into the garden, from metal sunflowers
to granite Shona sculptures, to wooden

masks.

Even at your local garden nursery you are
bound to find an assortment of sculptures
for the garden, some with a designed purpose
such as the water feature, sundial, or birdbaths
and feeders, but others can be simply beauti-
ful to look at.

Wooden sculptures need to be protected from
termites, and will usually have fungi growing
all over them in a few years, metal will rust,
which can also be an attractive feature, and
concrete sculptures might grow mossy with
age if placed in a shady moist spot, so think
carefully about what you want, and where to
place it first.

Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town has an
inspiring collection of sculptures scattered
around the gardens, that they move around
from time to time, a good place to start for
inspiration, and keep in mind how permanent
a fixture you want your sculpture to be in the
garden, before it’s ‘set in stone’ so to speak. .
S.C
Photos by SC: Bali, Cape Town and Botswana pg31