Creative Garden Ideas

With a bit of planning – and a lot of fun – you can create a sensory experience in your own backyard that children and grown-ups can enjoy equally. By integrating the five senses – sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste – into your garden, you’ll have a zone that will excite and fascinate. The magic combination of brightly coloured flowers, sweet-smelling herbs, the relaxing sound of running water and a scattering of fun garden sculptures will quickly bring you to your senses.

1. For a true sensory experience, fill your landscape with edible, fragrant and colourful plants, and garden art.

2. Plant pineapple sage and give your eyes and nose a treat – its leaves are scented just like the fruit and it has vividly coloured flower spikes.

3. Add a layer of engaging texture to your sensory garden with the handsome grey-green foliage of sage.

4. There’s nothing like the sound of running water to inject calm into your garden. This fountain feeds a little stream, or rill, that flows into a pond – a great spot for kids to splash about.

5. For interesting foliage and rich fragrance, add prostrate rosemary to your planting scheme. And you’ll have it on hand for your next lamb roast!

6. Strawberry plants make delightful and delicious mounding groundcovers.

7. Include comfortable seating so you can enjoy the fruits of your labour.

8. Be inspired by garden sculpture and add a giant rake for a bit of fun. A 100mm treated pine slab post forms the handle, the frame of the head is made from 90 x 45mm treated pine, and 40 x 40mm treated pine forms the tines. Everything is held together with 100mm countersunk screws.

Rill and pond

Running water brings a range of elements to your sensory garden – a soft trickling sound, the ever-changing light show of reflections and a wonderful place to cool off. In this project, a fountainhead feeds a serpentine rill, or stream. This, in turn, fills a small pond, which functions as both a reservoir and a play pond. Adapt measurements to suit your garden space.

Gather your supplies
n Fountainhead and pump
n 19mm irrigation pipe or flexible hose
n Click-on hose fitting with 19mm barb tail
n Concrete mix, to suit
n Powdered cement oxide

you’ll also need
Set-out paint; clear brushable pond sealant paint; sponge; H4 treated pine post; 50mm stainless steel mesh; mulch; Dulux Weathershield Low Sheen acrylic in True Red; 5mm steel rods; saddles, for fountain

Step 1
Choose an area for your rill and pond that has a slight slope. Mark out a serpentine shape on ground using set-out paint. Mark in a small round pond at each end. Dig out area, mounding soil around sides to increase depth. Dig all areas 60-80mm larger than required all around to allow for concrete. For extra strength, line bottom and sides of rill and ponds with 3 rods of 5mm steel.

Step 2
Run irrigation pipe between ponds. Leave an extra 500mm protruding from each end for connections and cutting off. Run pipe in the straightest and shortest possible route.

Step 3
Combine concrete and oxide in a wheelbarrow. Gradually add water, mixing as you go to form a firm and workable mix.

Step 4
Trowel concrete mix into rill and ponds, working into shape as you go. Make sure concrete is at least 60mm thick and completely surrounds steel that comes into ponds. Let mix partially set, then wet-sponge surfaces to smooth.

Step 5
Dig a hole behind upper pond for post to support fountainhead. Paint post, then concrete in place. Connect fountainhead to pipe and use saddles to fix to post.

Step 6
Once all concrete has cured, paint with sealant paint. Let dry, then fit pump in lower pond. Cut mesh to shape and lay over pump. Fill with water and switch on.

Giant trowel

When adding features to a garden designed primarily for kids, bold and bright colours are the order of the day. And to make garden art even more fun, why not make it in giant sizes. This huge trowel will provide bucket-loads of giggles for the kids and be a talking point for the grown-ups. It’s created by cutting and bending sheet steel, then attaching a handle, before concreting in place.

Gather Your Supplies
1800 x 1200mm sheet of 1.5mm-thick steel
100 x 3000mm H4 treated pine slab
Angle grinder fitted with metal cutting blade

You’ll also need
Hand trowel; metal primer/undercoat spray paint; Dulux Weathershield Low Sheen acrylic in True Red and Blue; 150mm galvanised bugle-headed batten screws (3); 125mm galvanised cup-head bolts and nuts (4); bagged concrete, to suit; roll 3mm clear vinyl tubing

Step 1
Mark out blade shape onto steel sheet. Use a regular-sized hand trowel as a pattern guide. Here, the trowel blade is about 1200 x 800mm in size. Use an angle grinder to cut out shape and grind off any rough edges.

Step 2
Position timber blocks above and below bend lines and clamp in place. Apply pressure to bend, as desired. You may need to enlist help for larger bends.

Step 3
Apply metal primer to steel. Leave to dry, then apply exterior paint in your desired colour.

Step 4
Cut pine slab into 2 lengths – 1800mm for shaft, and 800mm for T-top. Vary the sizes to suit your blade size. Lay shaft flat-side down, centre T-piece at 1 end with a flat side on shaft top, then screw in place with three 150mm bugle screws. Paint with exterior paint.

Step 5
Drill 2 holes through base of shaft for cup-head bolts. Mark and drill matching holes at top of blade. Position handle, insert bolts (with nuts to rear) and tighten.

Step 6
Paint a treated pine slab offcut the same colour as blade. Position on back of trowel blade as a support post. Leave at least 500mm extending beyond end of blade. Mark, drill and secure with cup-head bolts. Lower trowel into ground and concrete in place.

Step 7
Finally, add a safety guard for edge of trowel blade. Lay 3mm clear tubing on a solid surface and use a Stanley knife to slit 1 side of vinyl tube. You’ll need a tube length as long as the entire outside edge of blade. Fit vinyl over blade edge.

How to edge your garden

One of the easiest ways to add definition to your landscape is to use aluminium strip edging, such as Link Edge (pictured). Simply remove any unwanted grass and mark out your edging location. Dig a trench, adjust the edging to fit, then hammer into place.