HOW TO RENOVATE YOUR GARDEN ON A BUDGET

Gardening is a popular and fulfilling hobby for many people. People find it cathartic to grow a garden from seed and enjoy spending time with nature. However, garden maintenance can be expensive, especially if you have a large garden. There always seems to be too much that needs to be done, but you are unsure where to begin. This article will walk you through some ideas for renovating your garden with low-cost materials and inspiration to enhance your property’s aesthetic.

❇️ LOW-COST ALTERNATIVES FOR MULCH

Mulch is a combination of different materials layered over the soil. It conserves soil moisture, improves fertility, and reduces weed growth. It is primarily organic but can compose of inorganic material too. However, applying mulch to a large garden can be extortionate. Fortunately, it is possible for you to replace mulch with budget-friendly alternatives. Here are two mulch alternatives to use in your garden:

Shredded leaves: Transform everyday fallen leaves into mulch, using leaf shredder devices. This mulch offers nutrients for a lawn, flowerbeds, and even a vegetable garden when applied to the soil.
Pine needles: Rake up pine needles to form a pile and run it through a shredder. After the pine mulch is composed, place it around shrubs and trees to form a thick layer. The Pine mulch layer ensures to closely and neatly pack the soil together and prevent it from getting dense. It allows the ground to maintain moisture and offers protection against extreme weather.

❇️ VERTICAL GARDENING

Vertical gardening refers to creating a garden wall using plants, flowers, and garden ornaments to enhance your garden’s aesthetic. It is mainly seen in smaller gardens to make the most out of the limited space; however, you can also utilize it in more extensive gardens. Deliberately build a vertical structure or use a wall to wrap it with vegetation. Recycle plastic bottles, tins, and pots with flowers inside to hang on them and enhance your garden’s visual appeal.

❇️ TIRE DÉCOR

Tire décor is another easy and budget-friendly idea to revamp a garden. You can use an old tire or buy a new one – it is your call. Paint the tires with vibrant colors and ask yourself, “Do I need wall-hangings or garden furniture?” Utilize the tires depending on your answer.

Wall-hanging: Hang a couple of tires on a wall in your garden and place flowers inside to beautify it. You can use realistic-plastic flowers or actual ones – your call. It makes a dull wall brighter and more captivating.
Tire furniture: Crafting furniture from tires is a simple and rewarding technique to revamp a garden. Take two painted tires and join them together using a strong rope from the middle. Pay attention to this point and ensure that the string has firmly secured the two tires together. Put a puffy cushion on the cord, and voila! Your tire furniture for the garden is ready.

❇️ PAINT FLOWER POTS

If your garden has many flowerpots, you can always paint them to give your garden a more personalized look. Paint it in vibrant colors to produce a stark contrast with the green grass. Alternatively, if you do not have the time to paint the pots yourself, you can buy already-painted ones from any local store. It saves you the time and energy that would be gone in painting each flowerpot. In any case, colorful pots notably enhance a garden’s appeal.

BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO FLOWERPOT PAINTING

We understand that everyone is not an artist, so painting a flower pot may initially sound intimidating. However, it is one of the simplest ways to enhance your garden’s outlook. If you are clueless as to where to begin, do not worry. Here is how you can paint a flower pot:

Get some acrylic paints and paintbrushes. Acrylics are beginner-friendly paints that are water-based and can dry quickly.
Apply a base color to the flower pots. You can use different colors for each pot to make your garden look livelier. Choosing bright colors would be the safest and most innovative approach.
Draw easy shapes using a lead pencil such as circles, triangles, rectangles, etc.
Paint different colors in the shapes you made. Ensure that you use high-contrast colors for the background and the figures. You can paint the exact figures the same color to form a sequence. Alternatively, use transitional colors to help the contrast stand out more.

❇️ MAKE A BONFIRE PIT

Did you know you can build an outdoor bonfi r e pit yourself? You do not need to buy excessive bonfire items or risk your garden’s aesthetic by using firewood without proper care. Using four simple ingredients, you can build your bonfire: bricks, tinder, kindling, and fuel.

💠 HOW TO BUILD YOUR BONFIRE PIT

Follow these six easy steps to build your bonfire pit all by yourself:

Use your bricks to make a circle in your garden where you wish to put up the bonfire pit. Typically, it is situated in the middle of a garden with the furniture placed around it.
Pile up the tinder in the middle of the circle and make a teepee shape.
Use kindling to pile up in a teepee shape around the tinder. Make sure to leave some space in between. Oxygen needs to escape.
Put the fuel log around your teepee.
Repeat the process multiple times to construct numerous layers.
Light up the bonfire by dropping a matchstick in the middle of the brick circle.

❇️ LED lights

LED lights will make your garden shine – literally. They are convenient to put up, readily available at a store, and affordable. You can browse colors at a shop and purchase them to place on the walls or trees in your garden. There are plenty of LED light colors to choose from, so feel free to consider your preference and the overall outlook you wish to display through your garden. It will illuminate your garden and give it a fairytale glow.

Additionally, you can invest in globe lights as well. They offer better durability and beauty; however, they are typically costlier. If you have the budget, do not hesitate to go for globe lights!

❇️ GARDEN ORNAMENTS

Garden ornament refers to any item used for the decoration and enhancement of a garden. Although some of these may be overpriced, a garden ornament makes the overall outlook of a garden more pleasant and appealing to the eyes. Here is a list of garden ornaments that you can invest in:

Animal statues: Animal statues can be large or small. Large ones are typically seen in more extensive gardens, but their aesthetic will also lighten up a small garden. Invest in an animal statue to a place near a pond, birdhouse, or bird hotel. Often, frogs, flamingos, and ducks are used as garden statues.
Birdbaths: Regardless of their size, birdbaths can conveniently transform a dull garden into a nice-looking one. Place a birdbath near an animal statue and enjoy the view when chirpy birds stop by now and then. You can also build a bird hotel to enhance your garden’s beauty.
Fountain: Fountains block out noise and offer the tranquilizing sound of water splashing. It makes your garden’s ambiance notably relaxing, and of course, it looks charming.
Ponds: Garden ponds have countless benefits to the environment, wildlife, and the garden’s aesthetic. A pond conserves water, reduces mowing surface, cuts the use of pesticides, and is a local wildlife magnet. It allows your garden to be home to birds, frogs, squirrels, and butterflies.
Furniture: Garden furniture can be high-priced at the markets, but you can always build your own furniture. You can utilize tires to make homemade and personalized garden furniture, as mentioned before.

❇️ BUILD A WALKWAY

A garden with a walkway looks like a fairytale pathway. With the right lights and flowers around, you would feel like walking in a daydream. Building a walkway is also useful to make your garden look organized and well-kept. For those who visit you for the first time, this intentionally created pathway may stoke their curiosity to wonder where the path leads. It offers the perfect blend of functionality, neatness, and beauty.

💠 HOW TO BUILD A GARDEN WALKWAY

Follow the steps given below to build a garden walkway.

Mapping: Map out a plan for your walkway.
Excavation: Excavate your desired walkway using a sod cutter. Remove all grass, vegetation, and roots. Ensure to dig more than four inches deep.
Landscape fabric: Make sure you put landscape fabric all over the soil on the pathway.
Add sand: Add a layer of sand to your landscape fabric on the intentionally carved pathway.
Layout stones: If you have selected the stones you wish to use as your pathway, lay them on your sand bed. You can leave space between stones or not – it depends upon what you want to put in the gaps. If you want to add rocks, make the distance wider. If you are going to add sand or gravel, you can leave less space.
Leveling: Not all stones will be the same length or height, so ensure you level them up just right. This may require you to use a carpenter’s level.

❇️ LADDER AESTHETICS

Utilizing ladders has become increasingly popular in recent years. Especially for balconies or smaller gardens, people come up with the idea of using ladders to utilize space and enhance their garden’s beauty. You can use any wooden ladder to place it in your garden. Paint it a bright color and put flower pots on each step. You can also put fairy lights around the ladder to make it shine during the evening or nighttime events.

❇️ ADD OR TRANSFORM YOUR FENCE

Adding a fence to your garden offers greater privacy, security, and beauty. It makes your garden look organized and neat in general. You can always enhance your fence by repainting it if you have a fence set up already. Now is your time if you do not have a fence set up already. Set up a fence up and allow your plants to blossom in peace. It also prevents weed and sets clear boundaries for intruders or trespassers to beware of. In any case, the fence plays a crucial role in enhancing a garden’s aesthetic.

❇️ CONCLUSION

In conclusion, garden maintenance takes blood, sweat, and tears. Even with the simplest ideas, you will struggle with understanding and implementing the ideas you read about online. However, once you get the gist of it, gardening may become a fulfilling hobby for you. To transform your garden on a budget, find creative ways of saving money. Try to DIY décor whenever you can, invest in durable items, and recycle items to help you save yourself a few thousand dollars.