We recently purchased a monumental 19th century English terra cotta urn on a stone base for our garden.  We had a spot on the croquet lawn that needed a focal point.  Included are a before photo, and an after.  The style of the urn was perfect for our home.  It complemented the garden, and its scale (about 66″ tall) was large enough to be seen from a distance.  The addition of this piece created a “vista”, an important element in any garden design.  Our garden has been an ongoing project since we bought this house six years ago.  We are to the point with it now where we are really starting to get credit for everything we add.  Working in the garden is a lot like working in a house.  Just like you have to have tables before you can put lamps on them, you have to have a back drop before you can create a focal point with a piece like this. 

The space for the urn was sloping.  This created the need to build a platform for it to rest on.  The platform was made from the same stone as the retaining walls around the croquet lawn.  The urn was placed in the center of the platform, and to soften it some, we planted mondo grass around the base of the urn.  The patina of the urn, coupled with the facts that the backdrop for it was mature, and the mondo grass was planted very full make this piece feel as if it has always been there.  To me, that is the mark of a successful garden addition.

Arborvitae screen before addition of urn

Completed installation of pedestal and urn with mondo grass