How to turn ‘stuff’ into garden features

Trendspotters have noticed a move  away from manicured gardens towards a more authentic ‘lived in’ look. That opens the door for creative upcycling that solves the problem of what to do with rusted wheelbarrow, cracked pots, and other left over items from  house or garden projects.

Instead of cluttering up the back yard, stuff that you couldn’t even give away can be transformed (with a little creativity and elbow grease) into features that add a rustic quirkiness to the garden.

For creative, do-it-yourself gardeners, wooden pallets offer a multitude of options from flower filled garden tables, to palisade fencing, and even screens to divide the garden or hide unsightly walls.

Upcycling not only helps us to reduce our own clutter but also reduces the pressure on landfill sites, all of which help to reduce our carbon footprint.

Crackpots are beautiful too!

Cracked or damaged garden pots can be a headache to dispose of. Why not  use a broken pot to make something beautiful like this playful feature. The tiny white groundcover, Gypsophila ‘Gypsy’ appears to flow out of the pot, while the light pink pelargonium ‘Novita’ and pelargonium ‘Kariba’ with pink eye provide a beautiful floral effect. With its good side facing up, who would know that this half buried pot is past its best.

Try this: Pelargonium ‘Novita’ is dense, compact and upright growing with small, serrated leaves and an abundance of medium-sized flowers. It grows well in containers or in the garden, if positioned to receive morning sun and afternoon shade.

Poles apart

Gum poles are used in many outdoor projects like decking, pergolas, fencing and enclosures for veggies or poultry.  But what about the left over pieces? You can put them to good use as focal points in a garden bed. These three gum poles, roughly the same height, anchor this colourful, mixed flower bed. They can also be used as a backdrop, tapering off in height .

For those who love plentiful colour, this bed delivers it in spades. Canna ‘Canova’ provides height, with orange and yellow shades from Bidens ‘Golden Empire’ and Petunia BeautiCal ‘Red Maple’ while in the background there is the purple-blue petunia ‘Night Sky’ offset by silvery leaved Helichrysum and a bushy alternanthera ‘Purple Prince’.

Try this: BeautiCal ‘Red Maple’ is a cross between cali and petunia, with showy petunia-size flowers produced en-masse like calibrachoa. The compact, rounded plants, are weather resistant, recovering from rain faster than traditional petunias. They are also more mildew resistant. Plant in full sun, in well drained, fertile soil

Brick a brac

Have you ever thought of hollow concrete bricks having other uses beyond walls and foundations? Being weather resistant and durable, they can double as plant containers or edgings for raised beds, even as retaining garden walls, with the top bricks acting as planters.

Try this: The hollows are deep enough to fill with soil to accommodate the roots of compact plants like Sunflor  pot carnations that are available in a wide range of striking colours, They can be grown indoors or outdoors in garden beds and planters, and flower abundantly. They are also winter hardy.

Whimsical wheelbarrows

Give rusted wheelbarrows a new lease on life by using them as planters. They are deep enough to accommodate the roots of  a variety of flowers and retain water so that the soil doesn’t dry out too quickly.

If necessary drill a few drainage holes and lay weed-guard cloth on the base to prevent the soil falling through. To spruce it up with a coat of paint, sandpaper the surface, apply a primer coat and finish with a coat of enamel paint.

The mixed planting in these two wheelbarrows feature argyranthemum ‘Madeira’ yellow at the back of the barrow and marigold ‘Taishan’ for height, with gazania’ New Day’ bright yellow and calibrachoa ‘Cabaret’ yellow improved cascading over the lip of the barrow.

The yellow theme is repeated underneath the barrows  with Argyranthemum ‘Grandaisy’ yellow and Osteospermum ‘Serenity’ deep yellow offset by the silvery grey foliage of helichrysum.  Large clumps of Cape thatching reed provide a backdrop.

Knock on wood

Wooden pallets aren’t generally lying around the yard but for a rustic look and at an affordable price, pallets can be used in many ways.  All they need is to be sanded down, given a coat of paint and used with imagination. Here are two ideas.

To make a garden or patio table incorporating planters for flowers, herbs or veggies, all you need is a pallet, which has slats on one side but openings on the other side, two rectangular containers as planters and two concrete pavers to provide a solid table surface. A coat of white paint (remember to sand the surface first) gives it a clean fresh appearance. It’s a perfect height for kids.

The plants in this ‘living table’ are blue  Delphinium Magic Fountains, Salvia ‘ Mysty’, Pansy ‘Prima Punch Ocean’, Petunia ‘Hippy Chick’,  and verbena ‘Firehouse Lavender’.

Background screen

Disassembled pallets can be used as wooden fencing or joined together to make an inexpensive screen to cover an unattractive wall. A lick of blue paint for colour and an arrangement of three old railway sleepers as a feature transform this featureless corner. What brings it to life, however, is  the splash of tropical colour provided by canna ‘Canova’ and offset by ornamental Carex grass in front and Juncus ‘Blue Dart’ behind.

Try this: Canna Cannova is a different species to the invasive Canna indica and is more compact. It reaches a maximum height of 1.2 m and its colour range includes bronze-scarlet, mango, orange shades, red, rose and yellow. ‘Canova’ can withstand heat, humidity and drought and will flower from summer to autumn. For more information: www.ballstraathof.co.za.

Article and images supplied by Alice Coetzee. 

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