60 Great Ideas for the Garden

Dark clay vessels are a hot garden trend right now, but you don’t have to buy new pots to get the artisanal look.

When you're planning a colorful garden, petals aren't the only thing to consider. Leaves, too, vary in hue, impacting the garden's overall style.

Flower pots and windowsills seem to have a natural affinity for each other.

When the garden is especially exuberant, it seems you can never have enough vases. Make a matching set of vessels by painting metal cans in muted hues.

A fragrant, disease-resistant 'New Dawn' rose climbs the latticework that screens the east-facing porch ell of this garden. Tony Bielaczyc, the deputy gardening editor at Martha Stewart Living, took advantage of this bright exposure to stock the border with sun-loving flowers.

Greet guests with the tranquil sound of falling water in a pump-fitted urn with a motor that moves the water underground.

Create a verdant planter for your front porch using a trio of hanging wire baskets, sheet moss, and two containers of ivy.

Hollyhocks reach for the roof of landscape designer Judy Tomkins's home. The screened porch is surrounded by beds of blue and white delphiniums mixed with white cimicifuga. A rustic bench makes an ideal resting spot.

For cheerful containers, stain pots in colors that complement their contents.

Instead of the usual sphagnum moss or coconut fiber, line a hanging planter with canna or hosta leaves.

When most people think of lilacs, they think of the fragrant, old-fashioned common lilac, which blooms for a few weeks each spring, but the genus is quite diverse. By selecting carefully, it is possible to have two months of spring bloom, plus some repeat flowering in early fall, and even fall foliage color.

This vegetable garden was designed to be beautiful as well as useful. Striking, durable kales and cabbages are planted among the more traditional tomatoes, onions, and lettuces.

Dress your potted plants in a picket fence made from clothespins.

Plant crocuses in late summer for a beautiful bloom in the fall.

Flexible and strong, willow edging is a traditional English garden border whose form is naturally in line with its function.

Learn about Martha's inspiration for her rose garden.

With a little imagination and basic materials, a flowerpot can be just as eye-catching as what it holds.

Vines appear to defy gravity -- and let your wall show through -- when they climb without supportive woodwork.

Spur whimsy in the garden by placing a stone serving bowl on a bench or other available hard, flat surface. This one is filled with water and bluish-green pebbles, plus a fallen leaf from a nearby thicket.

A slab of stone and a few overturned flowerpots make a table that blends into the garden so well, it almost looks like something you unearthed while turning the soil.

Stacked pots filled with a pump and filled to the brim produce sounds reminiscent of lapping waves.

Decking your yard with tiki torches is an inexpensive, festive way to bring island style home -- and to light up the night without electricity.

We gave these terra-cotta pots an aged look, then trimmed them with seashells.

A simple bamboo pole elevates a sprinkler to another level, so each plant gets its fair share of water.

The metal and plastic screens that help keep mosquitoes and other warm-weather pests out of the house this time of year can also prevent soil from washing out of planters during rain or irrigation. Unroll a piece of lightweight screening and set your flowerpot on top. Cut the screen to fit, working around the pot's bottom with scissors (for plastic screens) or tin snips (for the metal kind). Fit the screen inside the pot to cover the drain holes, and then add soil.

Bushel baskets from the garden center make charming and inexpensive containers for a mix of annuals, including Angelonia, Lantana, and Plectranthus. Their wooden slats provide built-in drainage, and they can be recycled after the plants have had their season in the sun. As autumn draws to an end, the entire basket can be composted once the wire handles are removed.

Clay pots gradually whiten with age, showing evidence of minerals leaching from water through the years. Here's how to get that charming, weathered look without waiting.

Frequently found in English gardens, these bent twigs do the same job as a "Keep Off the Grass" sign, but they're far more attractive.

Give each herb its own personalized pot, and you'll never snip the wrong sprigs -- or lose the markers -- again.

Free from gritty sand and briny water, beach pails are pleasing to the eye, with their sturdy proportions and bold palette. So put them to decorative use, on display as cachepots hiding less attractive flowerpots within. Collect your favorites from the local discount store.

Like their spring-blooming counterparts, summer-flowering bulbs (as well as corms and tubers) are essentially programmed to flower during the warmest months.

Instead of bringing garden vegetables indoors to clean, rinse them outdoors as soon as you pick them -- and give the remaining crop an extra drink, too.

These cheerful seats enable you to accommodate unexpected guests in any part of the garden.

Create custom cabinetry in your garden shed with vintage wine crates from flea markets or online auctions.

Flowering herbs grow around stately artichoke plants and bring a touch of the Mediterranean to this garden.

A simulated patina helps faux-clay plastic pots blend in with those made from real terra-cotta.

In high summer, lawns need about 1 1/2 inches of water a week (shrubbery and garden beds require 2 to 2 1/2 inches) to stay green and healthy. Gauging how quickly a sprinkler delivers the right amount is easy. Set an empty, regular-size coffee can about 10 feet away from the sprinkler (or closer, if 10 feet is outside the watering zone). Turn on the tap, and monitor the time needed for the sprinkler to deposit enough water to reach 1 1/2 inches on a ruler dipped into the can. Next time, you'll know just how long to run the sprinkler.

Newly snipped mint leaves make a refreshing garnish for summer drinks, and this outdoor chandelier keeps the herb within arm's reach.

It's hard to clean or paint behind latticework, so make a hinged trellis that swings open.

The beds edging the grass-and-stone pathway to the front door of this farmhouse are filled with a jumble of flowers that includes bleeding hearts, tulips, tall bearded irises, roses, and peonies.

The tone and shape of containers and walkways can showcase plants and enhance an area's aesthetic. On the color wheel, green adjoins yellow, which adjoins orange; mixing these yields a satisfying color scheme. 

Here, terra-cotta pots draw attention to a "hedge" of boxwood topiaries. A background scrim of golden yew picks up the color of the boxwoods' new growth. A brick terrace creates a warm foil for spilling leaves near a fountain.

If you listed the characteristics of the ideal plant -- easy-care, long bloom, color, fragrance, shade tolerance -- you'd find that geraniums have them all.

Create a rustic, richly textured presentation by planting moss or placing a vase of lush flowers in terra-cotta pots adorned with tree bark.

Keep your garden hose from cutting into flower beds when snaking around a corner by adding a homemade hose guide.

Unsightly sticks and flags look like trespassers in your herbs. Instead, make tags using flat stones that appear as though they belong in your landscape.

Here's an attractive way to prevent invasive plants such as dwarf bamboo from overrunning your garden: Plant them in terra-cotta chimney flue tiles. Use a tile with a diameter that is at least 4 inches wider than the plant's root ball. Sink the tile into the soil so that the lip sticks up 1 inch; plant inside the tile.

A vintage wooden cupboard provides handsome storage for gardening supplies. Perched on the front porch, it serves as a way station between house and garden.

Suspend plants stylishly with this twine-and-button hanger.

Potted plants add a lush swatch of green to a room, but the soil they grow in has never done much for any decor. A layer of small, round pebbles arranged over the soil's surface looks as neat and tidy as a Japanese garden and helps keep the ground beneath it moist and shady, which is just the way most houseplants like it. Bags of small black or white river pebbles can be bought from plant or garden stores and arranged in concentric circles in your pots.

This window box alternative showcases your flowers and their pots.

Introducing height and structure to your garden with tiered planters is easy.