As you can see, I’ve got gardens on the brain after the last couple weekends of back-breaking work to get our garden into some kind of habitable state so you’ll have to forgive me for the single-sightedness of my blog lately.  I promise I’ll get back to interiors (rather than exteriors) soon.

However, I did promise that I was going to share a few little things I came across in my interweb travels that I thought would be relatively easy or inexpensive to recreate yourself.

Creative planters are probably the easiest and cheapest so we’ll start there.  I love the look of a mishmash of different styles of planters to keep things looking eclectic and interesting so don’t be afraid to adopt more than one type of planter!

These teapots are just gorgeous en masse but I’m sure they’d look just as cute in a smaller collection.  Just don’t forget to carefully drill small holes in the bottom where there’s no glaze for drainage.

The tea drinkers aren’ t having all the fun here.  Those old coffee tins can be painted in varying tones and put to good use as planters too.  Some good quality spray paint that’s suitable for metal should work fine here, just make sure it’s the kind that won’t rust!  I personally love Montana Gold which is suitable for outdoor applications and comes in every colour imaginable.

Don’t throw out your old colanders!  Plant up some herbs or flowers in that puppy and hang ‘er up!

There are lots of cute planters on the market as well.  Here’s a couple that I love…

Orla Keily’s little plant pots are so cute and retro.  They start at £13 for the smallest kind.  Yummy!

I also really love this gorgeous planter from Oka.  It’s a little more pricey at £36 but the pattern is so unusual, a single one grouped with some more inexpensive simple ones would really stand out.

I loved this idea as well – a garden trellis isn’t just for roses or ivy, ya know.  A whole herb collection or cute flowers can be hung for a vertical garden effect.  Perfect for small spaces too! 

You can take this idea even further by using these pretty little galvanised buckets from Ikea that are only £2 each!  Total cuteness.  Drill a couple of holes in the sides, attach with some hooks and Bob’s yer uncle.

Adding colour to your deck or patio doesn’t have to be too expensive and couldn’t be easier.  Habitat has these lovely 120mm x 180mm (that’s almost 4′ x 6′!) outdoor rugs now available for a mere £15 and come in blue and pink.

Need some outdoor lighting for when the evenings are warm enough to sit outside long after the sun’s gone down?  It’s something W and I look forward to alllllll year.  We really need to move to a warmer climate. This great DIY shows you can recreate more expensive rattan ball string lights for cheap as chips:  Buy a bag of rattan balls in the dollar/pound shop and pop a string of fairy lights into the gaps – easy peasy lemon squeezy.

More drama needed?  How about this gorgeous DIY tutorial which shows you how to create elegant string lights that are slightly larger – making loads of them really would look gorgeous over a dining table on a candle lit summer evening.

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Thought crates were only good for furniture?  Well, apparently not.  Here’s another idea for a vertical herb garden.  Clever for small spaces, no?

Need more ideas?  Well, that’s cool because I’ve got more for ya.

Paint your shed a lovely shade and add pretty bunting and a window box bursting with colour for a sweet modern cottage look…

Paint wood furniture that may have seen better days in bright pretty colours.  Lots of people are getting rid of their older garden furniture on eBay so look for a bargain that just needs a bit of TLC.  Or you can get Director-style Chairs so inexpensively nowadays – go for weather resistant paint like Cuprinol (which comes in lots of gorgeous colours) to ensure the colour doesn’t get bleached by the sun and can stand up to the occasional rain shower.

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Heck, you can even paint terracotta pots (less than a pound in Homebase) in pretty colours for added outdoor sass….   Pretty amazing, no?

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Hope you were inspired by this post to create a pretty outside space for yourself on the cheap.  What’s your favourite idea?  Is there anything I’ve missed?  Something you’ve seen recently that you want to share?  See any ideas here you might try yourself?   I would love to hear from you!