Decorating your garden with out of the box ideas

Hello. You find me in my office on a glorious Autumn day. Blue skies with some cloud. The sun shines just right and there is a little breeze. Yesterday it rained a little in the late afternoon.

Last week I was invited again to be a guest speaker on radio. Graham wanted to talk about decorating your garden with out of the box ideas. Beginning with what most people have. Walls. Some plants. Maybe a tree or two. Grass. A pathway of sorts. Paving. A pool. Another guest speaker educated us about the legal stuff around wall. How high they must be ...can be... when do you need plans.

On the back of this I am getting ready to do a workshop with architects about Landscaping trends for 2023. One of the trends is to garden vertical. This is a very popular idea...Till you hear how much money you need to install one and how much the maintenance will be. The good news is that walls provide so many opportunities to decorate.

Let's talk about a few.

The first one that come to mind is trellis work. A little on the boring side but it is a great way to add some interest to an otherwise boring wall. The trellis can also be made of wood or steel and can have different patterns on it. Diamond or square shaped gaps and can even be shaped like a tree with branches and detail. Plants can be trained up the structure.

Mirrors on wall are fabulous. They make a small space look bigger. They can be used in one full piece or as broken pieces. Different types of mirror can be used. Some can be very pricey They can be put behind an old door frame or window frame. When you walk past it confuses the mind. It blurs the lines. Where does the property end? It creates depth.

Similarly, you can stick artificial grass to the wall. Again, in one piece or as part of an art installation. You also get different types of turf and you can mosaic them together with great effect.

You can hang pots from the wall on stands or with hooks on the wall and pots. Here there are so many options. This can go with any style home. Depending on what shape pot you use. Also you can plant so many different things in them. Succulents, herbs (if you have sun), you can use them to stage your home for holidays. The list goes on.

You can also create a vertical garden without a wall. This is done by hanging pots or strings from a piece of wood or the end of a stoep or any beam. It can be used with great effect to divide spaces without making a solid wall.

I see this can get to be long post. Let me stop here.

Till next time.

www.ineeden.co.za

The photo is of a old tin used as a planter for a special stipelia flower. We use tins strung together often to make rain chains and can also be used as hanging gardens.