Gnomes crack me up - they remind me of The Full Monty (as does that mushroom - YIKES!).

I think some of the most interesting garden sculptures are at art shows and craft fairs - wild recycled metal sculptures and such. I also like crazy garden stakes that can be tucked into shrubs and flowers and surprise visitors when they get up close.

In the south, bottle trees are big. Used long ago for bottling up 'evil' spirits, now you see them in some surprising locations and made out of metal or wood or just a bare tree. Multi-colored bottles make it fun, and the look is very whimsical. Not for everyone, but it's very striking. Also a good way to recycle your favorite bottles.

Being a huge fan of recycling, I used the end pieces from my son's bunk bed (the round rail type with a futon that folds into a couch, with a twin bed on top) to fence off a corner of my little backyard. I was actually getting ready to haul them to the dumpster when I realized that they were a nice shape. The ladder part supports climbing/vining plants. I also have several odd shaped branches, and - my favorite - an old toy pick-up truck from when my son was small. The rest varies year to year, but I do have a couple of faries that live out there, and an old table top fountain that a frog has moved into.

I love sticking things in my garden. It's totally possible to overdo it, but I love the interest and surprise that it gives the garden. This year I picked up a couple of colorful ceramic mushroom stakes at Gethsemane Gardens. I've got them along the walk way.

My containers have stake-type things in the centers and I think it gives the flowers something to reach for.

I'm all for fun/poppy color in the yard. We just bought Archie and Edith, our new pink flamingos out back next to 3 plastic bird feeders in teal, yellow, and bright green. The doormat is a classic green astroturf with the requisite plastic daisy. So much more fun than the yawn Pottery Barnish "outside room" stuff. -To me anyway. I get a kick out of locating just the perfect piece of kitsch to add to the collection. Plus it's super cheap fun. We don't go overboard, just pops of color in strategic nooks.

alas, I just stick little plastic toys in the potted plants in my apartment. =/

i am so OVER the japanese pagodas in the garden beds

I am going to put together a garden gnome totem pole in my front yard ;-).

Garden decorations ROCK! I have mushrooms, gnomes, flamingos, etc.

And I am not even embarassed by them!

Marlaina
http://www.culturalrevolutionary.com/

I have a bottle tree in my yard. I lived for 20 years in Austin Tx, and in Tx and Nevada they are very common. My husband welded me the tree (it's a bush really) for Christmas and I have been collecting different colors of bottles for different seasons. It reminds me of home. (I have a pic on my Flicker) I also have a lot of welded items from various artists around my yard.
I hate those stupid Geese with clothes you see around here. They drive me crazy.

When I was growing up, for a little while my aunt and uncle had some little plastic ducks -- a mother and her ducklings -- on the lawn in front of their ranch-style house, and I liked it at the time.