Getting Ahead With Garden Finials

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Sharecropping was big business in old England. If you were lucky enough to own a manor house with extensive landholdings, you needed workers to make it pay. So you gave them a bit of your land to farm and they would return a share of each crop as payment.

Problem was that sharecropping peasants weren’t always grateful for this often inequitable relationship. The lord of the manor didn’t want these workers to get any ideas about land redistribution, so he ruled this miniature kingdom with an iron fist. If someone broke the law on the estate, it was off with ther heads.  To make an example of them the lord had the severed heads dipped in hot tar and impaled on a stake in some high-profile location. 

Some British gardeners claim this is the reason that ball-shaped finials became so popular in garden design - inspired by this head-on-a-pike in front of the manor house. So when new homes were built, those wishing to emulate all that defined the noble English manor adopted these round accents in stone. Gruesome yes, but probably true.

These are decorative elements that are often used to top a fence post whether it is wood or iron. Finials also top thick masonry columns at the end of balustrades and walls. Decorative finials often flank entries.

A finial can be as simple as the spheres described above or quite decorative in a variety of shapes.

Ball finials are also problem solvers for wood picket fences. Pointed finials combined with sharp pickets made fences hostile to perching chickens.  Finals also help rain and snow to shed off quickly keeping post dry and resistant to decay.

Finials are a perfect way to add instant style to a garden. They are ideal for topping gateway columns to create a much more formal entry. You can add them to pre-existing posts on an ordinary wood board fence. Larger finials, particularly those with a great deal of detailing such as pineapples can stand alone in planting or upon a pedestal to raise them up a foot or two for visibility.

So even if you don’t have a suitable fence or gateway for your finials, you can enjoy these beautiful accents in any garden setting. And just be thankful you won’t have to go back to the old chopping block for new inspiration.

Shop for copper finials at GI Designs http://www.gidesigns.net/garden-decor/customer/home.php?cat=58”²

Shop for iron, stone and concrete finials at K Accents http://www.kaccents.com/For_Home/Garden/Ornaments_1.htm