From blot to perfect plot
Sheds, wheelie bins, fences and oil tanks are all vying to spoil your garden paradise. While winter has them exposed, try these tips to fight the blight...
Looking out into your winter garden for signs of spring can be deeply dispiriting when all you see is how naked it looks. So why not turn that sparse view to your advantage by identifying – and rectifying – some common problems while your garden is most transparent?
The absence of leaves highlights eyesores that can remain largely hidden during the rest of the year.
Have a good look from the kitchen or lounge window, or from outside on the patio – basically, from wherever you spend most time enjoying the garden – to spot potential blots.
Then you can try out some simple steps to remedy them.
Here are some of the most common – along with some simple solutions.
Wheelie bins
We’ve all got to have them these days – and often more than one – but, my, are they big and ugly.
Let’s face it, wheelie bins stick out like a sore thumb.
But help is at hand. Vinyl stickers are your easiest option – they can either help camouflage bins to make them blend in, or go the other way and make them bright and fun. They’re cheap and easy to apply.
Wooden bin hideaways are brilliant too, and you can either buy one if you’ve got the cash, or build one if you’re handy with your tools.
There are loads of ways to make them interesting too. You can make a green planted roof, perhaps with herbs to help neutralise any bad odours.
You can also create a bug hotel on the side, which looks great and also supports beneficial insects.
To screen them off, large evergreen shrubs like photinia escallonia or elaeagnus are brilliant foliage covers.
Shed/garage
Now is the time to perk up your peeling shed or garage.
A fresh lick of wood stain goes a long way. But why not try two tones to enhance it with a bit of character?
Using pastel colours with white trim is really popular with designers at the moment, as are two contrasting shades of the same colour.
Or if you’re feeling really creative, try a mural or stencil.
It’s loads of fun – and part of a
growing trend that is seeing more and more people decorating the garden in the same way as they individualise their home.
Shed or garage walls also look superb when adorned with a garden mirror – they can make the whole space feel bigger and brighter.
Just angle them down a little so that they don’t dazzle you with sun.
You can buy garden-standard mirrors from most DIY stores. They’re plastic, so will happily take a whack from a football without any damage.
More people decorate their gardens now as they do their home
Fences
While you’ve got the paintbrushes out, it’s a good chance to give any sorrylooking fencing a brush over as well.
And if you’ve been stuck with an unsightly chain link or wire fence, use climbers or vines to make it into an attractive feature.
Trumpet vine, clematis, honeysuckle or jasmine are all beautiful flowering vines that will turn your ugly fence into a wonderful feature.
If you want something simple and evergreen you can go with classic English ivy (though ivy will struggle to climb a chain link fence). You will need to do some occasional growth control to keep them in check.
Oil or gas tanks
These will usually only be an issue if you live out in the sticks and are not on the mains supply.
Because you need access, you can’t necessarily cover up a tank with fencing or plant around them.
So instead, put a trellis around them and plant growing climbers through the trellis. I would choose evergreen or semi-evergreen climbers to give you plenty of cover all year round.
Honeysuckle is a good semi-evergreen with a lovely scent. Winter-flowering jasmine is another. Or try the beautiful berrying shrub, pyracantha. They great thing is, once any of these have established they’ll give you a beautiful plant to look at and enjoy – rather than staring at an ugly unit.
Overlooking neighbours
Not so much an eyesore but certainly the potential to breach your privacy.
This will depend on the size of your garden, but an evergreen hedge will go a long way to block out line-of-sight from overlooking homes.
Rather than go for the standard leylandii, a better choice of conifer hedge might be thuja plicata Atrovirens – the western red cedar.
It’s not quite as rampant as leylandii but will achieve results fairly quickly. It has a much deeper emerald-green colour and if you crush the foliage it gives the smell of pineapple. It makes for an ideal shield.
If you have a small garden and don’t want to lose space, trees that will offer you good blocking cover – but with a bare stem up to shoulder height – include crab apple, flowering cherry and mountain ash.
These will lose their leaves in the winter but give flowers and coverage in summer, and are cheaper to buy.
Whatever your garden eyesore, now is a good time of year to get out there and deal with it.
Get creative now and, with a little ingenuity and effort, you can make sure your garden will be beautiful to behold whichever way you look.