I have just done something to the garden that I reckon few here will approve of.....

[susanboozan]

Ok,

I like my garden. But I concentrate on the patio area which has beds on each side. Glorious with dahlias and whatnot plus a packet of night scented stock seed sown on each side at the back of the flowers. Glorious. (early days yet but it will be nice). So far so good.

I have pots down the back of the garden. The garden is 90 ft long yikes! I am so fed up dragging the garden hose down there to water them bloody pots. Anyway this morning I was in town, and a shop had the most delightful ahem...... ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS. Whew, I said it. They are very tasteful, white and pale yellow. Cost me 15 quid and three pots are now full. They look absolutely fabulous looking down from the patio area. Looks like I spent hours and days cultivating them. They are so far away from the patio that no one would know unless they trekked down the back which no one really bothers with.

Just being rebellious and practical really. What do you think!

There was an interior designer on GW a few weeks back who had artificial plants in her garden! Why not, I say. Life is too short. Although I am bloody sick of watering our long garden at the moment so I have great sympathy

Great idea but might look a bit odd if tgey are still in "full bloom" in January! You'll have to get seasonal sets.

I'm feeling sorry for the bees and butterflies duped into thinking there's tasty nectar in those pots but honestly, I won't judge because I can't grow anything well in my pots to last even the full season, so you've given me 'designs'...

They actually had 'faux botanical' on gardeners world the other week and it looked fab, If mixed in with real plants I think it can look good and is a great way of getting a plant you want in an area it wouldn't grow in normally.
I've just lost my tree fern, after having it all wrapped in fleece and hay all winter and I'm mighty miffed - will be looking for a fake one this year to replace it as I've never managed to keep one alive. Good for you

Wow! Such positive responses....

Down the back there is lavender and rosemary so the bees and such will be fine. Also an area full of daffs and tulips and snowdrops. There are also a few clematis rambling up the fence. No maintenance required (apart from pruning) as they are all in the ground. The pots just break up the dead space and give a bit of interest when the spring bulbs go over.

Thanks for the encouragement. I may start a faux trend here!

I have loads arty sculptural things my dc think are awful, steel bluebells metal purple alliums etc etc bought at garden shows I bloodly love them and the sort of fill bits in iykwim.

Infinite Sheldon,

I'm going to branch out ha ha, and over the Summer buy some quirky faux things also.

I never expected pp to be positive, I really thought I would get a ribbing. But it's early days yet!

I'm here with a cup of coffee looking out at my handiwork. Looks good. I wonder will anyone notice they are false!

These are available in ASDA ..........

Genuis.

We had some fake plants as a pretend window box in DH's first flat (previous owner put them in). They looked nice at first but the different colours faded in the sunlight at different rates so after a while they looked far too blue to be natural! Still, they'll probably last longer than real bedding plants and at that price sound like better value.

I have two faux rabbits in my garden...

At this stage I think I need to put false teeth in a plant pot! LOL.

Anyway, the faux flowers look great. So there....

I had some lovely delicate china bluebell flowers (they were teeny tiny and the flower bit was china and hooked on to a slim metal wire that was the stem. I realise they don't sound nice but they were. Anyway they looked really nice amongst real flowers and brightened things up when the other flowers were gone/a bit peaky. Sort of fake flowers that weren't trying to be real. I also have fake wooden butterfly's in the mini butterfly garden whilst I wait for the flowers to bloom. They are mainly for my sons benefit though (he is only 3 and therefore would als probably love garden nomes. In fact...)

But actually I just remembered there was an episode of goosebumps when I was a child with garden gnomes in so definitely no garden gnomes (shudder)

You will have to wash them. So the hose will have to go down the garden but maybe not so often.

I believe what we have here is a garden tat thread

There's a house where I used to live where the entire garden is plastic flowers. They are changed for the seasons too. And her car is covered in fake flowers. It always brought a smile to my face walking to the tube.