Perking Up Your Plant Pots

About a month ago, on a very grey day, a little corner of our garden looked like this:

Some very dead plants (I think they were dahlias in a past life) and some sorry looking pots. My mum, who knows about gardening, helped me triage the plants - some were rescued but most were beyond hope. I decided to spruce up this corner with some elbow grease, a can or two of spray paint and a few new plants.

The result: Colour! Greenery! And, by some miracle, a little bit of sunshine.

I use a lot of pots and containers in our garden. I like how portable and versatile they are. Our outside space is small and as we live on a hill we have steps up to all our doors. I like to put pots on the decking in the back garden and on the wall by the front door and move them around depending on the time of year and what is in flower. I thought I would share this with you so here is a tutorial of sorts, should you wish to do something similar.

You will need:

1. Old garden pots.

2. A large bowl filled with hot soapy water.

3. Rubber gloves.

4. An old sponge.

5. Masking tape.

6. Cans of spray paint.

First, some words on using aerosol paint: Follow the instructions on the can and use in a very well ventilated area. It's nasty stuff. Also, be patient. Many thin layers of paint work much better than two or three heavy ones, as I found out to my cost. I allowed about half an hour between coats so this was something I set up in the back garden on a dry day and came back to in between other things.

1. Empty your pots of as much earth and grit as possible, brushing them out as best you can.

2. Give them a good scrub with the old sponge and the soapy water.

3. Leave to air dry.

4. With the tape mask off the part you don't want sprayed.  You could use all tape, or tape and paper as I did, depending on the size of area you are working with. Spray inside the top quarter or so of the inside of your pot - the rest will be hidden by earth.

5. When it's dry, gently peel off the tape. Mine was a bit wonky on the corners but I'm not too precious about something that's going to sit in the garden in all weathers full of soil.

There is lots of fun to be had playing with different paint colours and shapes of pots, experimenting with a dip-dyed effect, or full-on paint.

Then fill with lovely plants and admire.

I can't promise this little project will bring sunshine to your garden though. Sorry about that.

Thank you for all your kind comments about Mr Snake, you are very kind. I feel as though I've hardly had a minute to pop round to your blogs and say hello this week - I will try to have a catch up tomorrow. Life is busy at the moment. We are all very glad it's half term next week. We need a little break.