When I was a little girl, whenever we were going on a long car journey my mother would say,

“Look out of the window and use your imagination.”

I never quite understood what she meant. However, it must have had some impact because ever since then, I have always loved using my imagination to be creative. Gardening is just an extension of that. In fact, you really cannot be a gardener without being creative and using your imagination at times.

One of the ways in which I love to be creative is in thinking up different ways of showing off my plants. The first item I created was a herb table out of an old bedlinen cabinet. I use herbs in my cooking all the time. I like to grow my own herbs and had a herb patch at the bottom of the garden. Our garden plot is on an incline with clay soil. In the winter, it becomes a death trap and is more like ice. It just wasn’t safe going there in the winter months.  I needed something near to the back doors.

I painted the cabinet with an exterior paint from B&Q. I then bought my herbs in seed form and grew them in terracotta pots from Morrisons. I bought some mini galvanised metal blackboard plant labels and wrote the names in chalk. I opened the drawers of the cabinet slightly and grew trailing ivy and  Soleirolia or ‘mind your own business’ out of them. I have won a few competitions with my herb table in magazines for upcycling. Plus, it has helped to save the problem of being able to harvest my herbs.

 

I always enjoy using unusual items to grow plants in. Here are a few of my other ‘imaginative’ ideas.

An old gardening trug used to plant sedums.

 

An old filing cabinet drawer

 

An old bucket for bedding plants.

My hanging baskets. I like to create these to be like an explosion of colour.

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This was another old bucket that I used to grow summer bedding plants in.

 

My Mother in Law has taken up woodwork and made us this gorgeous planter for our fifth wedding anniversary. I love it and can’t wait to fill it.

Finally ,this was a very old topiary ball frame that I managed to find for next to nothing. I am currently using it to add interest to my herb table and to grow a ball of rosemary.