10 Upcycling Ideas to Transform Your Garden
If you really want to add a unique flair to your garden, try decorating it yourself with repurposed household items. You can also find many practical uses for recycled material such as old piping and wood pallets. If you want to freshen up your patio. You could also try refurbishing old furniture.
Upcycling is a popular trend at the moment. Get stuck into creative projects and find a new use for all different kinds of household items. You could even make plant pots out of an old radio, wellington boots, or any random objects you can find! Here are ten upcycling ideas to transform your garden.
Pipe plant protection
You can make plant protection and support from recycled materials such as old piping. This actually works really well if you want to make hoops for your edged beds for example. If you grow crops in your garden like beans or other climbers, you can also make arches for them to grow up from used water or gas pipe supported by wood or metal stakes.
These types of plants look stunning climbing up in this way so it’s both practical and attractive support.
Household items for planters
You can make planters and small flower pots from plenty of household items for a very unique and fun look. Dated electrical goods actually look pretty cool, or you could use an old drawer as an entire herb garden. There are lots of creative ideas online if you’re in need of some inspiration.
Horseshoe decorations
If you’re an equestrian or just a fan of horses, then old horseshoes make great repurposed decorations and hooks. You can order personalised horseshoes online, and you can even send the ones from your own horse. These make unique gifts and ornaments. You can browse the Equi Supermarket for more equestrian-themed items.
Horseshoes bring good luck too. You can repurpose them to use as hooks for your hanging baskets, or as doorknockers for your shed or side gate.
Revamp patio furniture
It’s about time you freshened up your patio furniture with a lick of paint. You’d be surprised what you can do with rickety old furniture. If you had somewhere nice to sit, maybe it would be a reason to spend more time in the garden.
Rather than buying new, it’s a much more sustainable option to clean and restore garden furniture.
Mini Pond
Your wildlife visitors will appreciate a bit of water. If you don’t have space to dig out a pond, you can create one using the magic of upcycling. Make a makeshift pond using an old bucket, sink, or bath and surround it with stones and branches to make it more accessible. Even a layer of pebbles in the base of a washing up bowl would suffice. You’ll need to add some pond plants to keep the water from getting stagnant.
Bottle bird feeder
You can make your own bird-feeder from as little as a plastic bottle. Birds eat a range of different things you can find in your kitchens such as apples, bananas, eggshells, and cooked pasta and rice. Prepare the bird feed in balls or sticks mixed together with lard.
If you like this idea, you can also set up an upside-down wine bottle to make a butterfly feeder. Butterflies and small birds love sugar, so all you need to put inside is a sponge soaked in sugar water. See the full tutorial here. For a fun project, you can decorate the bottle too.
Make homes for wildlife
Bring those beneficial bugs into your garden with chipped pots, bricks, along with straw and twigs to create cosy homes for them. Stack them up into an appealing structure. An old box or wooden wine crate makes a great hedgehog house as well. Fill it with hay or straw and leave it in a quiet, secluded place in the garden. Kept it half-covered with branches and leaves.
There are plenty of ways you can upcycle old household items and material to make homes for wildlife. Provide a haven for the local wildlife with these recycled retreats.
Repurpose furniture
As well as revamping old furniture, you can also find a completely different use for it. Bring indoor or second-hand furniture outside. Refresh old cushions and chairs with some recycled fabric. Make sure you’ve got the tools you need for the DIY work involved. Old socks are ideal for cleaning and polishing, it’s all about using what you can find in the house! Here are some more upcycling tips for beginners.
Used wooden pallets
Old wooden pallets can be put to good use in the garden. If you paint it a fresh colour, you’ve got a handy planter or window box. They also make great compost bins. Use the upturned pallets as the walls of the compost bins. Ensure the wood has been heat-treated first, as this will protect it from pesticides. You can look for the letters “HT” as an indication that it’s been treated.
You could even use old wooden pallets and wood to makes homes for bees and insects. This a great fun project for the summer. Here are some instructions on how to make a bee hotel from wooden pallets. It’s simple and easy to do, and you’ll bring in the bees to help pollinate your garden.
Homemade scarecrow
You can use your imagination to make a homemade scarecrow out of old clothes and junk. This is an especially fun project if you have children. If you don’t have much inspiration you can look up how to make a homemade scarecrow online for ideas.
If not, old CDs hung up above and around your vegetables should do the trick. The shiny reflection will scare away pests such as pigeons as they move in the wind.
There are plenty of practical and stylish ways to transform your garden with upcycling. Why not get the kids involved and have a go at some creative projects this year?