DIY gabions, steps and French drains – garden projects on a budget

Gardens need a bit of structure (as do we all, at times!), but many of these features cost a small (or large) fortune.  This week we have come up with some ideas for ways to add garden infrastructure without needing to sell off the children or eat bread and gruel for a year………

Yes, you can spend a ££££ buying screens, pathing materials and such-like for your garden when you could easily make do with a bit of DIY.
Willow prunings are free and beautifully pliable woven around a line of fencing stakes to make a protective backdrop to spring planting areas. Beware those that involve pushing the willow wands into the ground to create living features though – fine the first year or two but after that it becomes a battle against said wands growing into socking great trees eventually requiring a tree surgeon’s attention to remove them.

But if you have had a visit from a tree surgeon always make sure he or she leaves their pile of wood clippings in a corner somewhere as they are really handy for surfacing paths. They may not last as long as the treated and imported wood chip you can buy at a garden centre, but their sustainability credentials are beyond reproach.

And rather than a visit to a garden centre, a trip to a builders’ merchant can be much more cost-effective. Not only can plant supports be easily made from steel rods, but obelisks and rose arches too. And my iron reinforcing mesh from a skip is now going gang-busters as a lily frame ….

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Gabions are wire baskets made of strong galvanized steel wire.  When you fill the basket with stones, the structure becomes rigid under the action of tension, and they have become widely used for making walls, rugged seating, retaining banks, etc. It’s a clever idea, and once made, they are very long-lasting and tough. 

We made some for our little bit of woodland – bought the panels flat-packed quite cheaply and wired them together, as you can see from our feature pic this week.  The pricey bit comes when you buy the stones to fill them with – obviously they must be big enough not to fall through the holes!  We were lucky to have a big falling-down barn with lots of stone, but unless you’re set on having gorgeous pebbles or sandstones, your local quarry will be happy to supply rocks that haven’t required too much costly processing.

Wooden pallets have become the go-to material for many bargain garden features – coffee tables, benches, plant stands, planters…you name it, and someone will have made it out of a wooden pallet. Okay, maybe not a hammock or a paddling pool – don’t get clever.

We’ve used them to divide the bays between the compost heaps. They do rot eventually, of course, and need replacing, but they are still a great way of solving that little problem.

We had a humungous storm in this part of the world last November and hundreds of trees came down, including quite a few of ours! It was all rather devastating at the time, but waste not, want not.  Over the years, we’ve used timber-falls like that to make lots of rustic……things.

They might be assembled to make a (rather uncomfortable) bench, or a stand for a bit of garden sculpture.

and even a rather challenging childrens’ climbing frame (oh, okay, the logs were too heavy to move, so we rolled them into an artistic position and left them there…..🤣)

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My sisters seem to be treating this subject as a fun hobby, what with their obelisks, playparks and places to sit.

Where is the serious path building, retaining walls or French drains for goodness sake?

In the Highlands (and newly retired/impoverished) I take this topic much more seriously under three main headings – 1. shelter;  2. paths and steps; 3. drainage.

Firstly shelter – if you, like me, need a low cost/free solution to a specific wind tunnel in your garden, what about creating a barrier by laying brashings between pairs of  posts? It looks to be a win/win/win. For a few bags of post-crete (note my easy reference to such things now) and some posts, you’ve solved the problem of what to do with those tree brashings, provided a fabulous wildlife environment and a filtered wind block.

Secondly, paths and steps. Creating a walked ‘journey’ around your garden completely transforms it from a football pitch to an aesthetic treat. You need to get down to your builders’ merchants for this one. You just need a bulk bag of ‘Type 1’ (for the paths), bricks, cement and a ‘can-do’ attitude – honestly…I made a video about it. It’s no way as difficult or expensive as you’d think.

Thirdly: Drainage. We’ve had a wet winter and a soggy summer, take control of your flooding problems now before the wet winter returns!  Unless you can accommodate a mini digger at the relevant location, it’s back to brawn and a spade to create a channel at a gradient towards the nearest drain (ahem, not your neighbour’s garden!), put in some landscape fabric (not pricey), gravel, then perforated alcathene pipe, more gravel and backfill.

I can feel another Youtube video coming on – and possibly a sign-written van at this rate!

Have you got any tips for garden projects on a budget while the weather’s still bearable?

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Here is the link to Caroline’s smashing video about how she made some garden steps.

Louise’s only beef with this pretty salvia is its name! Apart from this she’s delighted with this recent introduction which is why it’s her Great Plant this Month.

NB For any followers in the Cambridgeshire area, Louise will be supporting an event at The Manor House, Hemingford Grey PE28 9BN on Saturday 27 July, 12-6 pm with a stall of her eclectic plants. The event provides free entry to the wonderful Manor garden, with tea and cake, plant stall and art exhibition. All proceeds to the Arthur Rank Hospice.