THE KEY to your art

I’ve never had any interest in a roof garden, for which The Partner is no doubt very grateful. It’s hard enough to weed, plant and water on the ground, without having to climb a ladder to do it. Anyway, despite having come from a family whose business was scaffolding, I’m scared of heights.

That being the case, creating and hanging wall art around the property satisfies my creative impulses without scaring the pants off me.

Every now and then, I see a piece of wall art I love that

I can afford, but not nearly often enough to fill the spaces that need a lift or to satisfy my need for change, so DIY decor is the solution.

There are many styles of outdoor art that’ll add the finishing touches to a garden. With luck, you’ll discover a hidden talent and end up with some fabulous pieces of unique landscape art. If you lack inspiration, trawl the internet, magazines and landscape design books for ideas. Yes, it is allowed – everyone does it. If you don’t know where to start, there’s bound to be a how-to article out there somewhere.

Making your own paintings, sculptures and installations is an absorbing hobby and it can be as simple or as complex as you choose. It’ll turn you into a collector of junk and found materials, and completely alter your perspective on beach walks and nature rambles, which will become hunting and gathering expeditions. You’ll find yourself carting a basket, a backpack or, if you’ve really got the bug, a four-wheel drive.

Your artwork can go anywhere in the garden. A friend of mine objected that she didn’t have any walls other than those of her stucco house and she was afraid that if she hammered in a nail all the plaster would fall off. We went on an expedition of discovery and found tree trunks, overhanging branches, a pergola, gateposts and the back wall of the neighbour’s garage – all perfect places to showcase artworks like these:

OLD WINDOW FRAMES

We have a couple lying around (rejects from a window-replacement project) and

I’ve earmarked them for the courtyard wall. If nothing else, the dog will be able to see who she’s barking at. I hope The Partner will add a broad, flat window ledge to accommodate a row of tiny terracotta pots with succulents in them – or I’ll use artificial ivy to green it up.

TIMBER PANELS

If you have a wood library (in our case, an untidy heap of timber left over from endless renovations), make a piece of wall art by joining differentsized planks together with battens on the back. Run the planks both vertically and horizontally – and diagonally if you’re up to it. If they have the remnants of old paint on them, all the better.

WALL-HUNG PLANTERS

Vertical gardening has been a big trend over the past few years, but if you’re not confident that your plants will hang in there (literally), attach a planter box to a wall and plant conventionally. Same look, easier execution!

TEXT ART

Another big trend has been the use of text as art. I’m not big on inspirational sayings, but I’m a newspaper girl from way back so my plan is to make a triptych (a fancy way of saying a set of three panels or pictures) from sections of newspaper pasted onto plywood and sealed.

You could do this with sheet music or botanical prints from old garden magazines. My challenge will be to find newspaper pages without stories about war, violence, road rage, Donald Trump or anything else unsuited to the tranquillity of the garden.

BRING CREATIVE CHARM TO YOUR GARDEN

There was nowhere suitable to showcase this ceramicplaque, so a limestone block became a made-tomeasure wall space.Above and right: Borrow the lower branches of treesto support artworks like a clay necklace or metal tags.Below: A selection of old junk metal finds newlife as an interesting and bold wall sculpture. Metal cutouts with botanical themes give a wooden gate a bolt of colour.

A handy post, a decorative hook and some old keys create a rustic look.There’s no trick to getting plants on shelves to stay put, making them easier than avertical garden. Bamboo is a great material for homemade art – easy to find and usually free. The advantage of this wall hanging is that it’s very light, so it’s unlikely to pull the plaster off the wall.