Add charm to your garden with these five ideas for container and raised garden beds that are anything but ordinary. When it comes to gardening in small spaces, your options aren’t limited to a square wooden box. There are plenty of ways to make a fabulous, one-of-a-kind garden bed or container with a little work and a lot of imagination. While there are no rules in raised beds or containers, there are a few things to keep in mind: proper drainage, adequate protection from critters, gardener accessibility, and keeping edibles out if you’re using treated wood.
1. Long-Lost Hobby Equipment
When hobbies you’d taken up years ago lose their luster, use the goods for the garden. Drum Set. Turn your drum set dreams into garden glory. Remove the drumhead, plant the drum shell partway into the ground, then add soil and plants. Boat or canoe. If your vessel has sprung a leak, reuse it for flowers. Someday you’ll catch that 50-inch musky, but for now, flowers are much easier than fish. Instruments. Trumpets, guitars and banjos all have potential to hold flowers. Plus, they’re almost guaranteed to be good conversation pieces. Leftover paint. Aspiring artists typically have paint to spare. Use your skills to fancy up your existing raised beds. It doesn’t have to be perfect; in fact, just a solid bright color will perk up your plantings.
2. Forlorn Furniture
Updating furniture in your home? Give your old stuff an extended life outside. Bed frame. When painted a bright color, an old wooden bed frame looks fabulous propped outdoors and planted with lovely flowers, creating a literal raised bed. Bookcase. A saggy-shelf bookcase easily transforms into a raised bed simply by removing the back (and shelves, if you wish), laying it on its side and filling it with soil, flowers or veggies. Worms and bookworms alike will love it. Drawers. Dinged-up dresser drawers become small planting plots when the bottoms are removed and plants are grown inside. File cabinets. Paint old file cabinet drawers a vibrant color to make small beds for flowers. It’s way more exciting than housing tax documents.