I bought this Union Jack bunting on Saturday (Sainbury's, think it was £2.50). I love how it instantly gives a vintagey/wartime feel to the garden. And that's us decorated for William & Catherine's wedding! Wanted to share the latest garden project with you. So simple and inexpensive to do, and looks rather whimsical too. When is a faux bird cage not a bird cage?
When it's attached to the wall, filled with soil and used as a hanging basket.
I have a little secret garden. It's the closest thing I have to a walled garden, and it feels like a secret garden because it's tucked away and people only know it's there if I tell them. I call it Pumpkin Patch Farm. It's neither a pumpkin patch, nor a farm, but it is a little place that is very dear to me.
It's nothing more than a thin strip of land behind the garage and the boundary fence. Instead of letting it just weed over and do nothing, we cleared it and use it as a veggie patch. Strawberries grow happily along the back, and my tomatoes do pretty well against the wall. I've grown cucumbers in pots that did very well, as well as pumpkins and runner beans, and a redcurrant bush grows by the gate. At this time of year it is in need of a little TLC to bring it back to life. In the middle of summer it is a lovely place to sit with a magazine. Close enough to the house to see if anyone approaches it, but far away enough to get away from the phone. Branches from a tree in the neighbours garden sway overhead giving a dappled shade, because at times during the day the sun reaches the space and makes it feel very hot.
It's really just my little hideaway. I don't like grow bags for tomatoes, so I use tall terracotta pots, and tie the tomato plants to the trellis as they grow.
The stepping stones are a new addition. They haven't been put down properly yet, and when they are, they won't be in a nice perfectly straight line, but a bit more higgledy piggledy.
The wheelbarrows and bags of rubbish can go too(wretched husband!). Anyway. I have a small watering can and bucket on the wall, and wanted to have more hanging stuff this year too.
On Sunday I suddenly remembered the birdcage. I'd bought it on October 2009, as a birthday pressie to self. It was in the kitchen for a while, but then the lid came off, and I ended up putting it in the garage. Out of nowhere came the idea of how it could look really rather good in the garden. So we bought some basket liner that you can cut to your own size and shape, and some lettuce plants, and set to work.
I've tied the lid on with string, so it can open on the side. When the lettuces are bigger, I'll remove the lid completely, might even use it as a mini basket. 
I couldn't resist adding some Sweet Peas to the cage too. They may or may not do well, I'll just have to see. So there you have it. It's good fun to think of something a little different, and a great way of using something that would otherwise sit in the garage and gather dust. Why not rootle around and think of alternative containers for your garden? As long as you can bash a few drainage holes in the bottom, you could use pretty much anything.