Horsey Yard Decor

I am not much of a gardener, but I do plant  flowers every May that I (mostly) keep alive until the first frosts come in the fall. And I do enjoy having some horsey decor for my yard, too.

This is my favorite. Originally a fountain, the pump broke after a few years and I have been unable to find a replacement for it. 

It sat unused on the back porch for another year, and then this spring I decided to try it as a planter. If I ever do find a replacement pump, I can dump out the potting soil and fill it with water instead.

My stepping stone garden is one of my favorite things - I tell my kids that I am taking all those stones to the nursing home, even if I have to pile them in the back of a closet, because I love them so much.

 Naturally, you can find a horse

 or two  in that garden!

I found these garden stakes at Menards about ten years ago and wish I had bought more. They are made of metal, and whenever they start looking a bit weathered, I pull out a can of bronze spray paint and they look as good as new.

Sadly, my wind chimes have not held up as well - I only got these last summer.

 The cords tangle and break in the wind; I've repaired this multiple times but it still looks pretty sad.

This next yard decoration is actually upstairs in my horse room now - for a couple of reasons. One is that I really, really like it and with it in my office, I can see it all the time.

The other is that the cord it was on (like the cords of the first wind chime) did not stand up well to being twisted in the wind. It has broken many times and so I finally fixed it one last time and then brought it indoors.

Finally, I have a horseshoe wreath hanging on my front door. (The hook holding it is a galloping horse.) It's made of dried flowers and such and is getting fragile. Our front porch is covered and protected from the wind, but even so, this may be the last summer for it. 

Tomorrow I will share my original idea for that fountain-turned-planter and why it did not work out.

Tangled

I live in western Indiana in the "Till Plains" region. That's just a fancy way of saying that the ground is flat and good for farming. (It also makes it a lot easier to see a tornado bearing down on you.)

When the ground is flat and there's nothing to stop the wind, outside items can be blown around quite a bit. I regularly go out onto my patio and pick up the furniture and put it back where it belongs.

My poor wind chimes were a mess this morning! I've already untangled them at least once since I put them out for the summer.

This time when I untangled all the lines I could tell that some parts had been torn off. I'll go back outside and check the lawn and see if I can find them and maybe tie them back on.

Meanwhile, the chimes are back up and making pretty sounds as a light wind is blowing. I'm going to try and be a bit more proactive and take them down the next time that wind begins to blow.