I have this rainbow of roses set up in my town but since roses don't come in green I use metal benches and street lamps for the middle stripe, they're green, they look nice, and they keep villagers from moving in on top of the hybrids so it works out nicely.
I would like a log bench but all the uchi villagers I've had in all the time I've been playing have just hated to suggest things, I try the diving trick and everything but they'd rather talk about potatoes.
I love the metal bench and the log bench equally, but I chose the metal bench because it simply works well for so many different kinds of towns. That's pretty evident from reading all the posts in this thread!