How The Greenest Plastic Thumb Came About
I have spent years moving around the country from one house to another and obviously, from one yard to another. Being house proud, once the furniture was settled in our new digs, the exterior of the house became an important place to fix up. Now, some of the places and houses we lived in were owned but others were rented. Since we've always had pets/dogs, some of the places we were able to rent were marginal to say the least. And those yards certainly reflected that.
Being, as I said, house proud, even in the rented places I found ways to jury rig the interior of the house stapling up wallpaper on one wall, making my own area rugs with carpet tape, etc. After many moves, I got pretty good at quickly making my family comfortable as well as my homes.
I wasn't, however, a gardener and knew extremely little about how to make exterior plants grow. Heck, I didn't have a clue about what to do with all the ugly lawns and yards. I did start slowly, as it turned out, planting small flower beds with occasional success. More often that not though, in the beginning, my husband and I just kept replacing the plants that died with new ones. We learned though. We learned what would grow, what wouldn't and that we probably needed more help with the yards than we had time or money for. What solution did we come up with? Plastic plants. Yes, folks, we started gardening using plastic plants in our various yards to help fill in the worst looking sections of our yards. The plastic plants have traveled all over country for many years just like our furniture and other house belongings. All in the service of budget conscious home improvement.
So, that's what this site is all about: sharing with you what we've learned about using inexpensive plastic plants to save you time, money and lots of gardener's frustration.
Being, as I said, house proud, even in the rented places I found ways to jury rig the interior of the house stapling up wallpaper on one wall, making my own area rugs with carpet tape, etc. After many moves, I got pretty good at quickly making my family comfortable as well as my homes.
I wasn't, however, a gardener and knew extremely little about how to make exterior plants grow. Heck, I didn't have a clue about what to do with all the ugly lawns and yards. I did start slowly, as it turned out, planting small flower beds with occasional success. More often that not though, in the beginning, my husband and I just kept replacing the plants that died with new ones. We learned though. We learned what would grow, what wouldn't and that we probably needed more help with the yards than we had time or money for. What solution did we come up with? Plastic plants. Yes, folks, we started gardening using plastic plants in our various yards to help fill in the worst looking sections of our yards. The plastic plants have traveled all over country for many years just like our furniture and other house belongings. All in the service of budget conscious home improvement.
So, that's what this site is all about: sharing with you what we've learned about using inexpensive plastic plants to save you time, money and lots of gardener's frustration.
Read on
Are You Serious? Are You Really Using Plastic Plants To Decorate The Outside of Your Home?
It's true, but please realize that this technique was born out of frustration and necessity and well, frankly, it works well to have a good looking garden especially if it's not costing you more over the long run. As a matter of fact, using plastic plants to beef up the sections of our home that look bad has turned out to work quite well, potentially saving us thousands of dollars in replacement "real" green plants and flowers. Of course, we've fine tuned this whole process over the years and tightened it up enough to be able to present it to you here on this website. In any event, in terms of exterior home improvement, this whole concept can prove to be a rather valuable one.
But Aren't Plastic Plants Too "Fake" Looking To Pass As Real Plants?
Well, that would be correct but that's also what we're about to show you. Not only are plastic plants expensive, they're also usually a very fake looking color. Many real plants have multiple colors of green in them while others will have one or only two saturated natural colors of green. Plastic plants, well, just look so very, very plastic. That's not the look we're going for here. So, how do we overcome that? We paint them! Yep, we use a fair amount of spray paint to make our plastic plants look more like real green plants.
See the photo above? If you look to the right, you'll see my right arm holding a can of spray paint and spraying the fake sheet of ivy I'd recently purchased. I'm using a brand name spray paint specifically designed for spray painting plastic outdoor furniture. This product appeared on the market just a few years ago. You've probably seen this in paint stores and in television commercials being advertised for painting outdoor plastic furniture. You know, the kind of chairs that you can buy every summer at Walmart or Target. Same kind.
In any event, the trick to changing the appearance of plastic plants with spray paint is all in the way you actually spray the paint and in which direction/directions you aim. For example, in the photo above, I'm aiming the spray slightly above the fake ivy so that a gentle spray mist of paint just falls lightly onto the ivy. Now, this ivy bunch that I'd purchased was a very odd shade of forest green that looked nothing like any forest green that I'd seen in real plants. Since I planned to use it as fence cover, I really needed to do something to make it blend with real green plants coming in behind the fence. I choose an olive green spray paint to help tone down that offensive original color to considerable success. That light spray of olive green (since olive green has brown in it) was just the trick it took to be able to integrate the fake and real plants. Remember though, try not to spray directly onto the plant or plants; a very light touch is what's required here. Of course, you all realize that any spray painting should be done outside where there's ventilation. Enough said.
See the photo above? If you look to the right, you'll see my right arm holding a can of spray paint and spraying the fake sheet of ivy I'd recently purchased. I'm using a brand name spray paint specifically designed for spray painting plastic outdoor furniture. This product appeared on the market just a few years ago. You've probably seen this in paint stores and in television commercials being advertised for painting outdoor plastic furniture. You know, the kind of chairs that you can buy every summer at Walmart or Target. Same kind.
In any event, the trick to changing the appearance of plastic plants with spray paint is all in the way you actually spray the paint and in which direction/directions you aim. For example, in the photo above, I'm aiming the spray slightly above the fake ivy so that a gentle spray mist of paint just falls lightly onto the ivy. Now, this ivy bunch that I'd purchased was a very odd shade of forest green that looked nothing like any forest green that I'd seen in real plants. Since I planned to use it as fence cover, I really needed to do something to make it blend with real green plants coming in behind the fence. I choose an olive green spray paint to help tone down that offensive original color to considerable success. That light spray of olive green (since olive green has brown in it) was just the trick it took to be able to integrate the fake and real plants. Remember though, try not to spray directly onto the plant or plants; a very light touch is what's required here. Of course, you all realize that any spray painting should be done outside where there's ventilation. Enough said.
You've Mentioned that Plastic Plants are Expensive. So Where Do You Suggest Buying Them Then?
Yes, they are expensive, ridiculously so, which I've never quite understood. I mean, seriously, they are just plastic. Is it really that hard to manufacture and assemble plastic parts? That's aside from the reality that we have to contend with though and while I regularly hunt for plastic plants and flower bundles, there are some places better than others.
Here are some of the best places that I've found to purchase them: Michael's Art and Craft stores often have sales where you can get fabulously cheap fake plants and flowers for the inside of your home. I happened on a 90% off sale on the fake flower bundles at the end of this summer and I'll be showing you how I've used them shortly. Next on my list would be Walmart as I've found several good deals there over the years. Next to that, try consignment furniture stores which often frequently have indoor fake plastic or silk plants available. Consider disassembling potted fake plants and even some of the larger ones, like fake trees, can be a real bargain if you simply decide to cut off their lovely stems and leaves. Finally, for now at least, also consider hunting for good plastic plants as a general rule. Time and again, I've been surprised by where I find reasonably priced plastic plants. Garage sales are also another place that has frequently yielded some great plants to cut up and use in my gardens.
Here are some of the best places that I've found to purchase them: Michael's Art and Craft stores often have sales where you can get fabulously cheap fake plants and flowers for the inside of your home. I happened on a 90% off sale on the fake flower bundles at the end of this summer and I'll be showing you how I've used them shortly. Next on my list would be Walmart as I've found several good deals there over the years. Next to that, try consignment furniture stores which often frequently have indoor fake plastic or silk plants available. Consider disassembling potted fake plants and even some of the larger ones, like fake trees, can be a real bargain if you simply decide to cut off their lovely stems and leaves. Finally, for now at least, also consider hunting for good plastic plants as a general rule. Time and again, I've been surprised by where I find reasonably priced plastic plants. Garage sales are also another place that has frequently yielded some great plants to cut up and use in my gardens.