Rustic garden delights

• Published date: 03 December 2022
• Publication title: Whanganui Chronicle

My dislike continued until about a couple of years ago (nobody could ever accuse me of being fickle) when The Landscaper built some slatted timber screens around our front terrace. The timber faded to a pale silver beige, which was what I had hoped for, but the result against the off-white house and concrete terrace pavers was bland

I bought a tin of mid-brown stain and, with my heart in my mouth, I stained them. They looked great. I could hear my mother saying ‘I told you so’ from the afterlife.

We now have some decking stained the same colour, a timber sun lounger, and two sets of stained outdoor furniture. The new puppy is tan, and a week ago I bought a pair of tan boots and a tan handbag. How the mighty have fallen.

Now, for some reason, I’ve developed a liking for iron — possibly because when it’s rusty it’s rather a gorgeous shade of brown, and also because, well, it’s quite fashionable. Iron’s a great material to use in the garden because it’s so permanent. Certainly it rusts, but it doesn’t disintegrate with anything like the speed of timber, and it has a rather admirable tendency to retain its original shape, which is more than you can say for many garden materials (and, sadly, many gardeners). And even in a rustic setting, it has a certain elegance.

Having said that, it’s probably not the best choice for DIY projects, since it’s heavy to handle, and requires serious tools for cutting and shaping. No point thinking you can make a fantastic iron summer house with a handsaw and an electric drill.

But you can buy metal works of art, fountains and water features, firepits and basins, edgings and more from décor shops, garden centres, hardware stores and specialist outdoor centres. Failing that, go scavenging. An old gold-mining pan can be reinvented as a planter, a water feature, a wall hanging or a firepit. A big old iron wheel set into the grass makes a great circular potager for your herbs, and iron tractor seats can be repurposed into all...