Plant stands and pedestals not only protect patios and decks, they also attract attention to plants.

One easy way to make your own plant stand is to use cement bricks.

You’ll need 4 bricks for each layer. If you keep your cement pedestal fairly short, then you won’t need any type of adhesive.

To build a cement plant stand:

1. Use four bricks to form a square. (You’ll end up with an empty center.)

2. For another brick layer, place 4 more bricks on top of the first layer.

Repeat the layers for taller pedestals. You may want to use an adhesive or mortar for tall plant stands.

The brick plant stand pictured in this article was 40 cents per brick from Home Depot—yes, just $3.20 for a creative cement pedestal.  

Have fun thinking of more creative ways you can use bricks in your garden!

As an alternative to bright green plant ties and yarn for vines and climbing plants, consider using decorative plant clips. They are easy to use and add more garden artwork to your yard.

You can find plant clips online or near the Orchid sections at nurseries. They come in dragon flies, butterflies, bees, and even lady bugs.

Using a plant clip is much easier than using a traditional plant tie, too. Just quickly grab a vine and clip it to something else.

Training vines along walls or through other plants with plant clips is a fun project for garden helpers under 12. (The plant ties can also double as hair clips when you run out of vines to keep in check.)

A Garden Artwork Idea for Hanging a Trellis

How do you hang a trellis (also known as an espalier or lattice)? You can nail a trellis to a fence. You can use specialized trellis brackets. But if you want an easier way to hang a trellis without nailing, drilling, or making holes in your walls or fences, consider using a tension rod and S hooks.

You can find tension rods at your local hardware store, big box store, or online in the curtains and drapery departments. S hooks can be found in hardware stores in the same aisle as the other hooks and picture frame hanging materials. If you want an S hook in a color other than silver, you’ll probably have better luck in a hardware store’s gardening department or online.

Place the tension rod in between your ceiling eaves, fence posts, walls—or even two trees. You’ll insert the tension rod and then usually twist it until it is tight and snug between the structures.

1. Hang the S hooks on the tension rod.
2. Hang the trellis on the S hooks.

It’s that easy!

You can also add additional S hooks and trellises to make the trellis longer.

Hanging a trellis with this method allows you to easily remove or lift the trellis and vines when you want to paint. If you have the vine planted in a container underneath, you can even move the container and trellis when you redesign your garden or move to another home.

By Shannon Mendez

When you want to use one of those big, beautiful planters, you don’t need to fill the entire planter with soil. The planter would be too heavy, especially if you have a balcony garden. You can fill the majority of the container with Styrofoam pieces. Then, you can line the top of the pile with weed cover or an old window screen and then add your soil to your container. You can also place a smaller flower pot on top of the pile, just inside the larger one so it’s not visible.

You can also use this same method with hanging baskets. Hanging baskets can also get heavy if they’re full of soil. You can line the bottom of a hanging basket with moss, then with weed cover or a window screen. After that, fill the bottom half of the hanging basket with Styrofoam and then add another layer of the weed cover or window screen before adding your soil.

Reusing packaging materials will help you have beautiful planters and hanging baskets without all the weight.

By Shannon Mendez

All my hurts my garden spade can heal — Ralph Waldo Emerson