60 Great Ideas for the Garden
Tin Containers
When the garden is especially exuberant, it seems you can never have enough vases. Make a matching set of vessels by painting metal cans in muted hues.
Windowsill Gardens
Flower pots and windowsills seem to have a natural affinity for each other.
Bright Exposure
A fragrant, disease-resistant 'New Dawn' rose climbs the latticework that screens the east-facing porch ell of this garden. Tony Bielaczyc, the deputy gardening editor at Martha Stewart Living, took advantage of this bright exposure to stock the border with sun-loving flowers.
Pansies and Violas
Pansies and their cousins violas are among the most popular garden plants, adding color, whimsy, and grace to a bed, a border, or steps.
Sonorous Ceramic Water Feature
Greet guests with the tranquil sound of falling water in a pump-fitted urn with a motor that moves the water underground.
Hanging Wire Baskets Planter
Create a verdant planter for your front porch using a trio of hanging wire baskets, sheet moss, and two containers of ivy.
Create a Place to Relax
Hollyhocks reach for the roof of landscape designer Judy Tomkins's home. The screened porch is surrounded by beds of blue and white delphiniums mixed with white cimicifuga. A rustic bench makes an ideal resting spot.
Painted Hanging Pots
For cheerful containers, stain pots in colors that complement their contents.
Plant Platform
To create an attractive multipurpose garden shelf, lay a sturdy weathered board between the tops of two large pots. Use the surface as a staging area for plants on their way to the garden, to showcase smaller specimens that might get overlooked on the ground, or to provide a spot where houseplants can get fresh air and sunlight in the summer.
Prettier Planter
Instead of the usual sphagnum moss or coconut fiber, line a hanging planter with canna or hosta leaves.
Lilacs
When most people think of lilacs, they think of the fragrant, old-fashioned common lilac, which blooms for a few weeks each spring, but the genus is quite diverse. By selecting carefully, it is possible to have two months of spring bloom, plus some repeat flowering in early fall, and even fall foliage color.
Pots of All Stripes
Here's an easy way to give new life to old terra-cotta pots you have around the shed: Paint them to create coordinating stripes.
Hydrangeas
Gardeners everywhere have opened their eyes to hydrangeas' intricate beauty, abundant summer-into-fall bloom, and obliging tolerance of some shade.
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Clematis
A classic garden climber, this clematis bears a profusion of single, creamy white flowers with brown tipped centers from midsummer to fall.
Strikingly Efficient
This vegetable garden was designed to be beautiful as well as useful. Striking, durable kales and cabbages are planted among the more traditional tomatoes, onions, and lettuces.
Clothespin Picket Fence
Dress your potted plants in a picket fence made from clothespins.
Purple Crocuses
Plant crocuses in late summer for a beautiful bloom in the fall.
Willow Branch Edging
Flexible and strong, willow edging is a traditional English garden border whose form is naturally in line with its function.
The Ultimate Rose Garden
Learn about Martha's inspiration for her rose garden. Link
Embellished Flowerpots
With a little imagination and basic materials, a flowerpot can be just as eye-catching as what it holds.
Invisible Trellis
Vines appear to defy gravity -- and let your wall show through -- when they climb without supportive woodwork.
Dahlia Summer Sunset
From late summer to early fall, 'Summer Sunset' dahlia produces striking flowers above bright-green foliage.
Simple Garden Water Dish
Spur whimsy in the garden by placing a stone serving bowl on a bench or other available hard, flat surface. This one is filled with water and bluish-green pebbles, plus a fallen leaf from a nearby thicket.
Rustic Table
A slab of stone and a few overturned flowerpots make a table that blends into the garden so well, it almost looks like something you unearthed while turning the soil.
Pyramidal Pots Water Fountain
Stacked pots filled with a pump and filled to the brim produce sounds reminiscent of lapping waves.
Tiki Torch Anchors
Decking your yard with tiki torches is an inexpensive, festive way to bring island style home -- and to light up the night without electricity.
Edible Pansies
Pansies can have a mild, fresh flavor or a more prominent wintergreen taste, depending on the variety and on how much of the flower you eat (a whole flower tastes stronger than the petals alone).
Shell Flowerpots
We gave these terra-cotta pots an aged look, then trimmed them with seashells. Link
Hose Stand
A simple bamboo pole elevates a sprinkler to another level, so each plant gets its fair share of water.
Soil-Saving Plant Screen
The metal and plastic screens that help keep mosquitoes and other warm-weather pests out of the house this time of year can also prevent soil from washing out of planters during rain or irrigation. Unroll a piece of lightweight screening and set your flowerpot on top. Cut the screen to fit, working around the pot's bottom with scissors (for plastic screens) or tin snips (for the metal kind). Fit the screen inside the pot to cover the drain holes, and then add soil.
Easy Planter
Bushel baskets from the garden center make charming and inexpensive containers for a mix of annuals, including Angelonia, Lantana, and Plectranthus. Their wooden slats provide built-in drainage, and they can be recycled after the plants have had their season in the sun. As autumn draws to an end, the entire basket can be composted once the wire handles are removed.
Aging Terracotta
Clay pots gradually whiten with age, showing evidence of minerals leaching from water through the years. Here's how to get that charming, weathered look without waiting. Link
Bent Wood
Frequently found in English gardens, these bent twigs do the same job as a "Keep Off the Grass" sign, but they're far more attractive.
A Triumphant Archway
The archway leading to this summer garden is set off by neoregelia on the left and angel's trumpet on the right; in the background, Ipomoea batatas 'Marguerite' grows between cycads.
Personalized Herb Pots
Give each herb its own personalized pot, and you'll never snip the wrong sprigs -- or lose the markers -- again.
Pail Cachepot
Free from gritty sand and briny water, beach pails are pleasing to the eye, with their sturdy proportions and bold palette. So put them to decorative use, on display as cachepots hiding less attractive flowerpots within. Collect your favorites from the local discount store.
Summer Bulbs
Like their spring-blooming counterparts, summer-flowering bulbs (as well as corms and tubers) are essentially programmed to flower during the warmest months.
Rinsing Garden Vegetables
Instead of bringing garden vegetables indoors to clean, rinse them outdoors as soon as you pick them -- and give the remaining crop an extra drink, too.
Moss-Planted Bowls
Great moss-planted bowls are a favorite of Martha's. She likes to place them on the piers of the great stone balustrade that surrounds her terrace. Link
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