Terracotta Pots Are The Latest Garden Fashion
Simple Terracotta Design Projects To Transform Your Garden
Whether you want to welcome birds to your garden, or add a spot of colour, terracotta offers the perfect base material for an inexpensive garden design project.
The sun’s out and homeowners are now faced with transforming their outdoor living space into a beautiful sanctuary for the summer months. If you’re tired of your garden’s look, but don’t have much of a budget, consider updating it with some simple but stylish terracotta pots. Terracotta, meaning ‘baked earth’, is an incredibly versatile material. While traditionally used as plant pots, their design is also perfect for adding some ornamental touches to your garden. Here are some projects to get your teeth into this summer.
Attracting Birds
Having birds visit your garden is a fantastic way to connect with nature. By drilling 5p sized holes into the outside of a pot, filling it with bird seed, and adding a couple of terracotta saucers for the lid and base, you’ve created your very own bird feeder. So long as you keep it stocked, birds will keep coming back for more.
To keep the birds entertained a while longer, you might also consider making a bird bath. A medium-sized terracotta plate glued on top of a larger upturned plant pot is an incredibly simple but effective way to create a bird bath that is visited again and again.
Broken Pots
Many homeowners will be familiar with the sight of broken terracotta pots. But there’s no need to resign them to the scrap heap when there’s a great design use for them instead. This project will allow you to create an ornamental fairy garden which is sure to be a talking point with any guests that join you. And the kids will love it too. Find a plant pot that has the side broken off it, allowing you to see inside the pot. From here, you’re going to build a miniature garden to view. Build up from the bottom using earth, decorative stones, moss and twigs to make a tree. You can also add succulents if you want this to be a living garden. The layers are what makes this project so intricate, so keep on packing it down, interlayering with broken bits of pot if you wish.
Lantern Centrepiece
There’s no need to head inside when the temperature cools at night. With the gentle heat of a chimenea and the lighting of a clever lantern, you can enjoy long evenings beneath the stars this summer. Large terracotta pots make the perfect base for your lantern focal point. Fill with an oversized glass candle holder and tall pillar candle. You can then pack the bottom with stones to ensure it doesn’t tip up.
As with all terracotta projects, this might be one that you wish to paint or decorate in some way. If you’re going for a nautical look, then gluing on rows of string can transform the look of your terracotta. Shells are another versatile material that are easy to work with. If you’d prefer a colour change, then begin by soaking the pots, apply a base coat and then use a water-based acrylic paint. Make sure that you paint the inside of the pot as well as the outside which helps to keep a long-lasting finish on the exterior. Finish with a high-quality sealant as obviously your work of art will be exposed to the elements.
If you’re looking for a way to revamp your garden this summer, then start by investing in some simple, yet stylish terracotta pots and then let inspiration take its course.