Upcycling ideas for your garden

Upcycling doesn’t just apply to your home – there’s also plenty of ideas for the garden, giving your private outside space a brand new look and feel. Take a look at some of our suggestions below to help you turn your hand to upcycling and make sure your garden is ready for the return of nice weather.

Planters

There’s a huge variety of items that can be upcycled into an exciting new planter for your garden. Tyres are a great example; ensure they are thoroughly cleaned before you begin adding a layer or two of primer to them. Next, add your chosen colour of garden paint, including the inside of the tyre for the full effect. Turn the tyre so it is standing upright and fill the inside with soil along the bottom (you may also wish to look into adding weed barrier fabric too). You’re then ready to pot your plants. Attach a sturdy piece of pipe or spare hanging bracket to your wall and position your new planter.

How about filling your old wellies with soil and planting them up with bright and colourful blooms for a fun planter option? Or taking old teapots and cups and creating a herb garden? Old wheelbarrows can also make great planters and bring a rustic country feel to the garden. The opportunities really are endless!

Bird feeders

Did you know you can use a simple plastic bottle as a new bird feeder? Using a drill on a low speed, create two holes that are big enough to fit the handle of a wooden spoon through them. Once the spoon is in place, make the hole on the opposite side of the handle slightly bigger to ensure the bird feed spills out onto the head once the bottle has been filled. We also love the idea of using old tea cups as bird feeders too. You could position them on an upcycled shower caddy in your garden so the birds have easy access to the food, or alternatively hang them from trees or bushes by their handles. If you mix your bird seed with lard or suet and leave to set in the fridge overnight you can be sure the seed won’t spill out all over the lawn!

Dining furniture

We’ve previously spoken about clever ways to use wooden pallets at Christmas but how about turning your hand to creating some new garden furniture with unused pallets? Don’t forget that abandoned wood pallets can be found lurking around gardens and garages everywhere. Take care when selecting disused pallets as they may carry harmful chemicals, bacteria or be made with pressure-treated wood.

Simply disassemble the pallets and use a mini-saw to cut the planks to the size you’d like for your table and seating. Next, turn to a cordless drill-driver or a cordless screwdriver to then put the pallets together in your preferred layout and style. Smooth over everything with a multi-sander and splash on some colour or varnish, depending on your preference.

If you don’t fancy upcycling tyres into a new planter, they can also be transformed into new patio seating instead. Clean your tyres, add a couple of coats of primer followed by the garden paint in the colour of your choice. Then attach recovered cushions to the top of your tyres for extra comfort. You could even connect multiple tyres together, one on top of the other, to give your seat more height.

Plant labels

There are several items that can be upcycled to become your new plant labels, making sure you know what’s planted where and looking great amongst the flowerbeds.

Firstly, we love cork markers. Using a marker pen, write the name of the plant or herb and attach the cork to the top of a bamboo stick or wooden skewer which can be cut to the length you desire. You’ll see when the plant label is in position that a cork is a great choice to ensure it stands out in your garden.

As an alternative, try painting some lollypop sticks in bright colours and writing plant names in bold pen for markers that really stand out. Or, take some smooth pebbles and paint these – either create a nice design in simple black or white, or paint the stones with outdoor paint. You could write the plant’s name, or get really creative and draw on a strawberry, carrot, tomato etc to show what’s planted beneath the soil.