Landscaping on a budget

You don’t need a lot of money to make your garden great, but you do need to tap into your resourcefulness and creativity. Here are some great ideas on how to add personality to your landscape without breaking the bank.

Add a splash of paint
Especially in a small garden, painting several items such as; fences, pots, and garden furniture in the same intense colour creates continuity and punch. Even in the dead of winter, the garden will be colourful and interesting. Colours that do well in gardens include; lavender blue, magenta, teal, deep purple, lime green, sunny yellow and bright reds. Nearly any quality oil based paint will do, but be sure to choose an exterior paint and if you’re painting metal, select rust resistant exterior paint.

Make it fab with fabric
Most people think that it’s a definite no-no to use fabric outdoors, but that’s not the case. You can find inexpensive fabric on sale, or left over’s from other projects or recycle material and consider these pieces semi-disposable. You can leave them out in the rain and then just let the sun dry them again. They will only last a year or two, but then you can seek out new material to refresh your look. The alternative is to invest in good quality exterior fabric. They don’t fade and prevent mildew and will last for many years.

Experiment with concrete paint
Concrete paint is a relatively new product, but has been the saving grace for many a boring concrete slab patios and dull driveways. It comes in a wide variety of colours and adds interest and warmth to even old, cracked concrete. You can patch cracks and chips if you would like with any pattern you desire, but some of the most interesting projects incorporate those flaws into the design. Painting concrete is about as easy as painting a wall. Firstly, prepare the surface by cleaning it, then once it has dried mark out the pattern and paint with regular brushes. Allow to dry thoroughly for a day or two, then seal with an oil based sealer. You can tint the sealer, if desired, to add more richness to the colour.

Collect cool stuff
Nothing adds character to a garden faster and more reliably than collectables. Whether it’s birdhouses, vintage garden tools, rusty watering cans, baskets, birdcages, statues or even vintage trellises these items found in antique stores and flea markets look good no matter what the weather and they don’t need watering or weeding. Some rules do, however apply. To prevent a chaotic mismatched look, keep some common themes among your collectables. Perhaps all of them will have a rusty, oxidised surface or all will be birdhouses. Cluster groups of collectables together, displaying them in the same way you would in your home. As fun as it is to use collectables, it’s also important to limit yourself. The garden should be more about plants than about stuff, so exercise restraint and limit yourself to a few favourite pieces.

Dig a flower bed
Spend a weekend digging a deep, curving flower bed in your front garden and you will not only give your home a facelift, but you’ll also increase its value. Front flower beds are eye-catching and enhance what estate agents call ‘curb appeal’. Make the bed wide enough; anything from 1 to 2 metres wide will have the desired effect. Fill it with shrubs along the back and place a few bright long blooming perennials in the front. Be sure to include annuals such as marigolds, petunias, impatience and others that will look great in the front garden.

Go potty
Pots of plants solve so many problems. They dress up a plain entry, add colour and greenery to barren concrete corners and bare back doors and pretty up porches and patios. Investing in a large selection of clay pots can set you back, but buying just a few each year is manageable. Focus on purchasing pots that go with one another, if you have a collection of different pots, paint them all the same colour. Your collection of pots will be even more striking if you scatter in among them little accents, such as small sculptures or even something as simple as an attractive stone.

Get creative with recyclables
Don’t throw it out; find a new use for it in your garden.  Whether you have leftovers from a home project or you have been lucky in ‘dumpster-diving’, architectural remnants, such as old windows and other odds and ends add that sought after personality to your garden.

Other ideas:

• Old weathered wood looks great in the garden and is easy to turn into a simple bench or potting table and will look as though it has always been in your garden.
• A second hand dressing table, especially if it has chipped and peeling paint, looks surprisingly at home in the garden. Put it against the wall and use it as a potting bench. The drawers make for an excellent storage space.