Take a fresh look at your garden

Mexicans decorate their succulents with dried papery flax flowers in various colors. [Click to enlarge]

Necessity is the mother of invention. When every penny counts, making gardens on the cheap yields some of the most inventive solutions. These are the times when thinking outside the box can turn your garden from an ordinary one into something truly interesting. It's all about how you look at materials and how creatively you recycle, reuse and reclaim.

As a garden designer, I am a collector of unorthodox ideas, particularly low-cost ones. If you think about it, anyone can fork over big bucks to buy the best designs and high-end materials. But when gardens are created with salvage and castoffs, that is where the true art lies.

From my files I've pulled some ideas that may inspire you to take a fresh look at your patio, courtyard or garden. Perhaps they'll conjure up something within you that will generate even more options for beautiful outdoor spaces and decor.

Out of the nursery district of Xochemilco, Mexico, the ancient "place of the flowers," are potted plants in true pop art tradition. The growers use brightly colored gravels to create vivid mulches in quite unusual combinations. These colors are available in the pet department at discount chains or the local pet store. Safe for fish, this gravel is safe for plants, too. Use this idea to create one-of-a-kind gifts or spice up winter windowsill gardens with sun-bright hues.

From a European teaching garden comes yet another salvage idea. Workers are required to wear boots with steel toes, but when the shoes finally break down, they aren't thrown away. Because the steel toes become exposed and rust, the shoes develop a unique look. Ground moss is salvaged and introduced to the leather so that the boots become fuzzy and green with red spore capsules surrounding the "nose" of steel. With a series of them lined up, the effect is quite appealing. In warmer, dry climates, plant them with small sedums and creeping succulents to take the place of the moss.

A public Dutch garden shows how to decorate a tree for summer. Stiff plastic-net pot scrubbers can be had for just pennies at dollar stores and closeouts. Blue, red and yellow scrubber balls give a tree a really festive look for next to nothing.

Cobalt-blue bottles, whether they come from Skyy vodka, sparkling water or perfume, are beautiful in the sunshine. If you've got an old tree that doesn't do much for its surroundings, consider adding bottles to the nooks and crannies for a beautiful cobalt collection. Another option for a collection of identical bottles is to line them up in precise spacing to create a repeating graphic element. This is a perfect edging.

Maureen Gilmer ~ Scripps Howard News Service In Mexico, little gift trees are potted with aquarium mulch. [Click to enlarge]

Another Mexican discovery: potted succulents with the most curious blooms. Upon closer inspection, I realized that they were actually dried flowers inserted into the living succulents. The little dyed blossoms bear needle-sharp stems that Mexican growers use to color potted succulents to create more visually exciting gifts. With a different flower for each plant and odd locations for the blossoms, these whimsical creations are not in Nature's inventory. They do, however, make for great creative ideas for crafty children who can create their own "blooms" with these cheap artificial flowers.