Landscape Your Garden For Less

Spring is officially here! It’s time to dig out your old gardening clobber, roll up those sleeves and get your garden guest-ready. For those of you who have more in mind than just a bit of weeding, here are a few suggestions for fabulous, eye-catching and (most importantly!) inexpensive ideas to help landscape your garden and take your outside space to another level.

Adding a few interesting features like home made planters, a rockery or path, or perhaps a new seating area can completely reform your garden. Whether you have grass or concrete, a pocket handkerchief or a more sizeable chunk of turf, there is always something you can do to improve your back yard.

Prepare Your Plan

Launching yourself into some haphazard, half-baked idea without making a proper plan can be a recipe for disaster. Plagiarise designs from magazines and the tele, ask creative friends, or scour the internet for ideas and inspiration. There are some great online gardening websites available, such as gardenandhappy.com, where they offer free garden planners to help you landscape your garden and make your ideas become reality. A theme or colour scheme can help to tie everything in and give focus, making your garden a real visual treat.

Salvage Success

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. Or something like that! It’s amazing what you can find at salvage yards or tips, or even in a nearby skip. Old wooden boxes, tyres, ladders and even an old bathroom suite can all be used for great feature planters or displays. Also check out social media sites – people are always giving stuff away. Facebook or freecycle can be the source of some great finds.

Features For The Future

Garden rocks, crushed up stones and gravel are cheaper than turf or plants and make great stone paths and rockeries. They can also be used to create your own firepit – have the marshmallows at the ready! Use some wooden boards or even metal poles to make a trellis or archway for climbing plants to grow up. Create your own planters from tyres, old paint cans or even a sink or toilet! They can look surprisingly attractive and if nothing else, are a great talking point!

Painting Perfection

You can make your garden look worlds better with just a lick of paint. Painting your fences really smartens up the whole garden. However, if you’re creative and fancy something really different, try painting a mural on your fence or wall. Stick to your theme, be bold with your colours and you could generate something truly unique – Banksy, watch out!

Seating Shake Up

You can create garden seating out of almost anything – old tree stumps, wooden boxes or used pallets. You just need some decent electric tools, a day or two spare and perhaps a friend for extra manpower. To go with your new seats you might like a new table – again, old pallets work well for this, or maybe some disused barrels and wooden boards. Let your imagination go wild!

Don’t Tire of Tyres

Old tyres are so versatile. Aside from creating planters for shrubs and flowers, they can be used to create a small wildlife pond with just a waterproof liner and some pond plants. If you have an old (sturdy!) tree in your garden, hang up a tyre on some rope to makes fantastic swing for the kids – or yourself!

With a little thought (and a little more hard work) you can conjure up a wonderful outside area for entertaining, a playground for children or just a calm space to escape and forget the world, using very little money. Summer 2021, here we come….