Upcycled outdoor living

Create unique and stylish garden features for minimal cost using reclaimed materials and simple DIY skills. Helen Riches shares four step-by-step projects and more inspiring eco tips

- Helen Riches

Perhaps you're like me, radar always poised to spot a unique bit of reclamation as a present for your garden? Or maybe you're looking for hands-on inspiration and know-how to transform rescued refuse into something beautiful or useful?

Either way, the more relaxed nature of gardens makes them ideal spaces for a little DIY fun, especially when the sun is out, turning old into new and benefiting from the feel-good factor that comes with rescuing something from landfill.

That's exactly how an old bridge became part of my growing garden stash recently, liberated (with permission) from a building site, where it would otherwise have been treated as waste. I haven't crystallised a plan for this reclaimed gem yet, but that's all part of the process - finding inspiration for a project online or elsewhere, and tracking down practical videos to help transform 'trash' to treasure.

Items with potential can be easy to find. Wooden painter's ladders, complete with arty splashes, seemingly breed at my local junk shop and make brilliant plant stands when paired with old scaffolding boards and upcycled containers. My neighbourhood WhatsApp group is awash with water tanks that are fantastic converted into ponds. It's also worth asking local builders if they have any unwanted bricks or wooden offcuts, or tree surgeons for sawn-up logs destined for the woodchipper. Or go foraging for fallen branches, driftwood or wooden pallets (always check it's okay to remove them first). Such 'waste' can provide excellent materials for a range of projects such as hurdles and planters, or even bigger projects such as pergolas and furniture.

Project 1

Plant ladder