6 Tips to Make Your Winter Garden Look Festive on a Budget

You’ve put up a tree, hung all your decorations, and even placed the gifts. Your house looks like a Christmas wonderland. But your garden looks like a desiccated version of its sunny, sprightly, healthy self.

Everything looks dry. The trees have shed all their leaves. The rose bushes are hiding from the cold, and snow dusts every corner. You want to shake up things and make your garden look prettier. But you blew your budget on Christmas gifts for your family and friends.

Wondering how to transform your garden into a winter wonderland on a budget? We’ve got six tips to bring some festivity to your garden.

1. Decorate with Fairy or Garden Lights

Buy a roll of fairy lights from Target or an online store and transform your sad garden into a lively wonderland after night. Fairy lights will not only illuminate your garden, but they will also give it a magical look — just the thing everyone wants during Christmas time.

Just make sure to layer up your lights on different levels. For example, place them along brick borders, within bushes to illuminate them, and around tree trunks, branches, and wooden posts.

You can also hang twinkling tights across your patio roof, decking, and shed or hang baubles on your trees to make everything look even more festive.

2. Install a Raised Flower Bed or two

Thinking your garden feels lifeless? Install a flowerbed or two. But not any flower will do. Festive season calls for fresh and fragrant scents, and there are several flowers that could help you with that.

For instance, you could plant witch hazel to add a licorice-like scent to your garden, winter honeysuckle for a lemony scent, Sweet Box for a honey scent, or Clematis Jingle bells for a spicy smell.

Plus, aside from beautiful fragrances, your flower beds will look pretty, giving your garden the life it desperately needs.

3. Go Festive with Christmas Wreaths  

Whether you make them on your own or buy them from your favorite store, Christmas wreaths are a must for decorating your garden. Wondering where you’ll place them? You have a door leading to your garden, don’t you? Well, put your wreath on it!

Just make sure to choose a wreath that makes the rest of your garden. For instance, if your garden is a den of berries, fir, and natural foliage, choose a wreath that matches your garden.

4. Pot Some Plants

If planting flower beds isn’t your thing, why not get some potted plants? Potted plants, whether real or fake, are perfect for decorating the less green areas of your garden. They’re also great for adding some color to the barren landscape of your garden.

Plus, you can place them along your driveway or patio to create areas of visual attraction. You could also hang fairy lights on them, illuminating the natural beauty of your potted tree and the area around it.

5. Build a Garden Fire Pit

Many people skip sitting outside during the winter months because of the cold, but it’s easy to solve that problem by adding a heat source, such as a garden fire pit.

Garden fire pits are easy and cheap to make — you just need some heat-proof bricks and wood. Plus, they can be used all year round. During the summer, you can light a fire and roast some muffins, and in the winter months, you can sit and chat with a hot cup of coffee.

If firepits seem like a hazard waiting to happen, patio heaters could do the job just as well. Just be careful when placing them around your garden. Somewhere dry and hard, like a concrete path or decking, will do.

6. Make Your Patio a Comfort Heaven

A covered patio is a heaven during the winter, especially when it’s just beside your garden. Not only can you decorate it along with your garden, making your home doubly festive, but you can also use your patio as a place for entertaining friends and family.

But if your patio is uncovered, don’t worry. Just attach a canvas sail shade to your house’s walls, the trees in your garden, or any posts to cover your patio. You could decorate it with potted evergreens, pine cones, twinkling lights, and other decorations to liven it up.