Creative gardening ideas really appeal to the whimsical side of me.
I love to recycle existing items from around the house for my garden decor ideas. Not only will you save money but you’ll help to save the earth, too.
I must admit that I am not a normal gardener. I don’t enjoy conventional landscape plans. I don’t invest in fancy garden structures or planters.
To me, garden decor ideas should show the style of the person who lives near it.
In my gardens that means using cast off items in new an unusual ways. Some call it junk gardening. I just find this type of gardening fun, whimsical and inspiring.
One benefit of junk gardening is that it is a small step that we can take to protect the environment at home by recycling. This makes this type a gardening a win win project!
Thinking Outside the Box with These Creative Gardening Ideas
If you love garden ideas on a budget, check out these creative ideas. I would love to try any and all of them out in my garden.
An old white bird cage has been transformed into a succulent planter in just a few steps. See the step by step project here.
And check out this post for more birdcage planter ideas.
This is one of my favorite creative ideas for gardening. I hated always having my hose on the lawn getting in the way of everything but didn’t want to pay over $100 for a hose pot.
Frogs can be used in all sorts of ways in a garden setting.
Even though terra cotta pots will break, you can actually use the pieces. Keep the soil in your other pots from washing out by using pieces of the broken pot to cover the drainage hole.
Old terra cotta pots have been painted in bright colors with craft paint and strung on cord at various levels to make a wind chime effect. Fun!
See another project using large terracotta pots for a Christmas jingle bell.
My husband came home one day with some old, worn out musical instruments and proudly offered them to me for one of my creative landscaping ideas.
Some spray paint and a bit of time and I turned them into these fun and whimsical musical planters. See the project here. And check out more musical planters in this post.
Do you have a few hours and some recycled wood? In just two hours, my husband and I made two of these easy raised garden beds.
The cost was just $40! Click though to find out what kept the cost so low for us.
Wooden spoons painted a bright red color and then painted with names of various herbs make it easy to tell my herb plants apart now.
Bicycles have long been used as garden decor ideas. All you need is one that has a basket on the front or back (or both!) that can be filled with soil and planted.
See many more bicycle planters here.
One of the most frustrating parts of vegetable gardening is the mess that your hose can make when it is dragged over the vegetables.
Hose guards can be quite expensive, but I made a set of them for $3.96 using rusty rebar and some Dollar store plastic golf balls. See the project for these hose guides here.
The only source I can find for this project is Pinterest. (If you are the originator of the idea, please provide a link and I’ll update the source link.)
From file boxes, to wagons, so many household items can be turned into interesting garden decor ideas.
In this fun project, an old shallow file drawer has been re-purposed into a fun succulent container.
To make it even more budget friendly, the succulents are mainly those that were propagated from cuttings. Just two hours and a total cost of $4.00 and my patio table has a lovely succulent display. See the tutorial here.
Looking for a focal point in your garden? Try using an obelisk. Not only does this structure have lots of visual appeal, it is functional, as well.
Plants that love to climb will find themselves at the top with a beautiful surrounding view. This obelisk gives my mandevilla vine a wonderful place to roam!
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Old concrete blocks do double duty in this raised bed vegetable garden. Two of them, surrounded by other planters gives me a whole season of vegetable in one small space.
A rustic old planter does double duty now as a charming garden decor idea. I would love to find one of these to re-purpose in my garden bed!
Terrariums can be expensive to buy, but you can make use of a common kitchen item and have it do double duty with plants.
This is such a whimsical and fun idea. A pair of colorful child’s rubber boots are doing extra duty as a planter for some begonia plants. Such and easy to do project, just make sure to drill some drainage holes first!
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The opening on the top of teapots and coffee pots makes them idea garden containers. In this pretty scene The planter is paired up with a pail painted the same color. It holds a pumpkin but could also be planted up.
Watering cans are also used in the garden this way. See some creative watering can ideas here.
This pretty planter started out life as a galvanized bucket. Stencils and some craft paint adds a row of daisies around the rim to dress it up.
It’s impressive to use this car as a planter, but what is more impressive to me is the wonderful artwork on the side of the car. Someone is being very creative!
See more car planters in this post.
Do you have other creative garden decor ideas you would like to share? Please add your ideas in the comment section below. I would love to hear your suggestions.
Admin note: This post first appeared on the blog in February of 2013. I have updated the post to add many more ideas and a video for you to enjoy.