Guest garden blog from My Tiny Plot: Fill Your Garden with Beautiful, Inspiring and Natural Things

Image credit: My Tiny Plot

Spring is every gardener’s favourite time of year. Full of promise, yellow Primroses and fresh seedlings popping their heads up and making everything seem new. It’s a magical time when the whole season is ahead of you and you feel like anything can happen; it’s just down to you to make it grow. I love my garden just as much, if not more than, my house. Therefore, when I’m shopping for things to use in my garden – tools, pots, storage, or even sculptures – I’m very particular that each needs to be stylish, tactile and above all beautiful.

Over at My Tiny Plot I try to avoid plastic wherever possible. It may be cheap but it doesn’t add any character to my garden. No-one was ever complimented on a beautiful plastic pot now, were they? I use terracotta pots. I love the feel of terracotta. It’s reassuringly heavy, uniquely shaped and some of the old ones even have thumb prints still in the clay! But most importantly they look beautiful potted up with this year’s seedlings. Used in a larger object, like a forcing pot, it can bring structure to your garden too.

Image credit: My Tiny Plot

I also like to use wooden seed trays. Yes I know it’s quite old-fashioned but that’s what I love about them. I imagine myself to be a head gardener on some Victorian country estate diligently sowing seeds to keep the kitchen happy all year round. It’s the same reason why I painted up my own plant labels using oak tags. They lend a sophistication to my garden which I must confess I revel in.

Image credit: My Tiny Plot

I also like to use either cast iron or wooden furniture in the garden. If you choose a hardwood it ages beautifully and goes a lovely silver colour over the course of a few years. With the cast iron furniture I can paint it whatever colour I like, usually a muted green like Farrow & Ball’s Cooking Apple.

The one object that makes me smile every time I see it is my cast iron Victorian glass cloche. It’s a delight to behold and does its job perfectly. You can even stack them on top of one another to grow taller plants in. I love the fact that it’s solid and made from real glass. It makes my garden seem durable, sustainable and more real somehow.  It feels like I’m building a garden that will stand the test of time, using crafted gardening tools that I will be able to hand down to my children, and practical items that will be cherished for years and years.

Image credit: My Tiny Plot

So the next time you’re tempted to go for the cheap option think of your garden as an extension of your home where you want to be surrounded by beautiful, inspiring, useful and natural objects.  Heck! if a water butt can be elegant then anything’s possible.