So what is "good" garden ornament and "bad" garden ornament? A woman in Lakemoor, a suburb in McHenry County, is being fined by the village for displaying old toilet "planters" filled with flowers. The village cited her with a “Public Nuisances Affecting Peace and Safety” ordinance that disallows junk cars, non-working boats and “any other vehicles, machinery, implements, and/or equipment and personal property of any kind which is no longer safely usable for the purpose for which it was manufactured," according to the Northwest Herald.

News reports note the village warning was among dozens sent out as part of a larger effort to improve the village’s image, but if the toilet planters are not removed by June 29, she’ll be ticketed between $25 and $500. Instead of complying, the gardener hired an attorney to fight the upcoming fines. She also did not help her own PR cause by placing signs under these toilet planters that say, "God bless my neighbors."

So are toilet planters worthy of tickets? Are they so tacky that they should not be tolerated? What if she made a planting "bed" out of an old brass bed frame like they did at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show this year? What if she planted pansies in old boots like I have seen numerous times?

And who is the Mr. Blackwell of garden fashion?

 —Michelle Byrne Walsh