Are fake flowers in the garden tacky and cheap looking?

[NoEffingWay]

To preface, I am a terrible gardener who kills all plants. I have wasted so much money and time trying to tend a garden whilst basically watching it die.

I went down an internet rabbit hole and ended up buying a load of fake flowers which will fill all of my plant pots and hanging baskets. My hope is that they will give the desert wasteland some colour. What I don’t want is the look of a children's play centre! What are your thoughts? I can return it all unless I ‘plant’ it. 😃

Naff as and does nature no favours whatsoever. Plus they look ridiculous when the seasons change. I roll my eyes when I see this in commercial settings - fake wisteria in full bloom at Christmas!

A lawn is much better if you mow it every 2-3 days in summer, not every few weeks. You just leave the clippings on the grass and don't have to bother with a grass box on the mower. It's like running the hoover round and takes hardly any time. The grass responds by thickening up and getting really soft and dense, like a good quality carpet.

I’m the wrong person to ask I both hate fake plants but am shit at keeping real ones alive. My house and garden looks like some sort of plant graveyard and is probably far worse than a few plastic bits.

I was only thinking today how shite they look 😂

Tips for low maintenance but attractive pots. Firstly put a decent amount of straw in the bottom of them; straw helps keep roots aired and prevents water logging, whilst acting like a sponge and keeping moister in the pot.
a good compost (I make mine using one third zoo poo and two thirds coconut coir.) a good water, and then plant lavender or rosemary or lemon balm. All really hard to kill off, they are incredibly tolerant of drought and over watering. If your pots are deep then a good old fashioned rose with a strong scent will be fine, but roses like to get their roots down. I completely neglect my roses; very occasionally I feed my ones in pots, and if they start attacking me, I lobe the buggers back!
Honey suckle and our native clematis colloquially known as ‘old man’s beard’ is lovely year round, incredibly tough and a fantastic habitat and food source for insects and birds. Old man’s beard isgorgeous in the winter, which is when it’s ‘beard’ develops, when the beard gets frosted it’s absolutely stunning! In a pot it won’t rampage its way through your garden. Honey suckle is also tough, again in a pot you’ll limit the spread, and the scent in the evening is absolutely incredible, it’s great for moths.

Yes they are and they confuse bees and exhaust them

I love gardening so would not be my choice,however I did admire a friends hanging basket only to find out they were fake..they looked really good.she hates gardening so it actually works for her...and sounds like it will work for you also.enjoy

I agree entirely.

Yes. And I kill every living plant A I’d rather have weeds and wildflowers than fake ones

My neighbour bought some and put them in pots. After a few months in the sun they looked really faded and sad. They reminded me of those graves in cemeteries where plastic flowers were put on the grave years ago and no one has been back since to tend to it so it's filled with weeds and the remains of the plastic flowers. Also, when it was windy some of them blew away and landed in my garden.

There's nothing wrong with letting wild flowers flourish in the garden - the pollinating insects will thank you for it and as our bees and butterflies are becoming more & more scarce, they need all the help they can get.

What about having a gravel garden with alpine plants?

We bought some of those box balls and since learning how to cut them into shape via YouTube we have those for all year round structure and bulbs that provide round the year interest.

Awful

Just had one more thought about this - have you considered "lending" your garden to a young neighbour or local family member who wants a project, growing their own food maybe. A bit like a free allotment. You'd still have the garden to yourself in the evenings but they'd do all the hard work.

You could trial it just for this summer and see.

Ps if I were you I'd forget about hanging baskets. I've never even tried having one because they're so unforgiving if you forget to water them (or don't have time). Pots with trays underneath, or planting straight in the ground, are the best as pp said.

this, 1000%

Yes. Along with fake grass