Budget garden ideas can often be the best and they will help you achieve that lush green outdoor space you want – without spending megabucks on major landscaping overhauls or out-of-reach plants...

One of the great things about exploring different types of gardens is that many of the most impactful looks often cost next to nothing to create. From clever planting to savvy tips for growing from scratch, there's so much you can achieve in your garden space even with a very limited budget. Plus, using clever color tricks with decking paint and more in the way of DIY, you'll be able to enhance your planting scheme for less. Be inspired and start your own transformation.  

BY LUCY SEARLE. CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ANNA K. COTTRELL

Container gardening is a really budget-friendly way to decorate a garden. Flowers are inexpensive, decorative and are often the first thing that guests are drawn to. They’re especially effective in a small space, on a terrace or patio, or in a courtyard without a lawn where they can be seen from indoors. You could even display them on a junkyard find like a step ladder to create a really cheap but effective garden feature.

Garden landscaper, Ellen Wright says, 'Baskets and pots can brighten up any outdoor space, and you don’t need expert gardening skills to plant them. There’s an array of hanging baskets and pot types for all budgets; you can even choose most flowers and plants depending on your personal preference.'

Ideal if you don’t have space for beds, plus, these will be easy to maintain and change up should you want a new look.

Create impact with vertical planting incorporated into your garden screening. We're talking pots fixed to walls, vertical gardens and plants that grow upwards, whether trees, larger shrubs, climbers or hedges, especially those good for quickly creating privacy, screening and security. 

The cheapest option (other than a few plants in pots, like those above) is to start with fast-growing climbers, such as clematis armandii or wisteria. Buy the maturest plant you can afford for quicker results. Another option is to use hanging planters with plants that trail, or to create living walls.

All of these ideas are great options if you're wondering how to make a small garden look bigger.

Got a little more to spend? Using one of the best small trees to create a ceiling for your garden, in the same way a pergola or gazebo would, is always going to be a cheaper option than having a whole new structure built. Specimen plants give a garden an instant sense of substance and proportion, which is difficult to achieve otherwise. The same can be said for borders: instead of paying a contractor to build a fence, invest in hedges, climbing plants and grasses to define the border and increase garden privacy and security. 

Again, it's always worth investing in the largest plants you can afford for quicker impact.

Remember to use a mixture of good-value shrubs, including those that will flower, fruit or have interesting fall foliage, such as Sarcococca confusa or Viburnum. Use these with a mixture of spring, summer and fall flowering herbaceous perennials. These come back year after year without the need to buy again, so they are long-lasting and relatively low maintenance, as well as representing great value for money – ideal for beginner gardeners.

You can also plant many shrubs – and even some small trees – or even start a herb garden in containers, if space is tight or if you're moving and want to take them with you when you go (for an instant garden at your new home). 

Putting in perennials means you'll spend out just once, because they will last not just year-round, but for years and years. Work out the total number of square meters of your planting beds and allow five shrubs or perennials for each meter. Shop around at garden centers and nurseries and expect to pay hardly anything at all. Join a local gardening club and pick up knowledge and cuttings or small plants for sale at a discounted rate, saving more to make your budget go further.

Herbaceous perennials such as lavender and rosemary do especially well in garden borders, year after year.

Use this pallet converted into a table as a planting table or to display a collection of pots planted out with bright blooms. Simple, free, effective. Palette garden planters are another awesome budget-friendly garden DIY.

Eyesore of a shed ruining your garden? Paint a garden shed to give your garden an instant boost. You may even want to go to town and paint surrounding fences too. 

Wright recommends 'If your fences or shed are looking shabby and unloved, giving them a new lick of paint can brighten up the garden. There are a lot of wood paints and stains available in a variety of different colors depending on your taste. It’s recommended to use a wood protective paint to ensure any fences or sheds are protected from the elements and prevented from rotting.'

Our advice: choose your garden color scheme carefully: the more natural it is – pale grey-green paint shades – or the darker it is – think blacks and dark blues – the more you will show off your planting. Avoid anything garish which will compete with your blooms for attention.

One of the simplest decking going to create a just-like-new look that will enhance a surrounding garden space instantly. We have to say it might become an annual edit if you want your deck to stay looking that way all year long. Add some stunning outdoor furniture and your garden space is golden.

Paint: it's so easy to DIY yet the impact is so great making it an awesome budget idea for smaller gardens also. Pick a color that really shows off your planting: deeper shades work best.

There’s always a way to reduce the costs of garden landscaping. For seating areas, a solid surface is essential, but elsewhere cheaper gravel, or even bark, will do. Both are easy to lay on landscape fabric to keep the weeds down, and you can break up a large area of gravel with oak sleepers or ground cover planting. 

Gravel is, in fact, one of the cheapest materials for your garden, and you can learn how to lay gravel yourself. Barve explains, 'Gravel and good quality weed membrane can make a very usable and relatively cheap path or patio. You don’t need to have a hardcore base for lightly used areas. Just make sure the soil is compacted and reasonably level.'

Dry stacked stone or rendered blockwork costs less than ‘faced’ brickwork, while Western red cedar decking is cheaper than other decking timber, and works just as well.

'If you live in a red-brick property, for a harmonious look try dark greys or warm earthy tones, and steer away from buff or yellow. If you live in a limestone property, warm, similar-toned paving and chippings will ultimately look best,' says Paul Harvey-Brookes, RHS judge and award-winning garden designer.

'When planning paving, you can reduce the cost by infilling with gravel, and replacing natural stone with cast pavers can look equally as good and save money. You can often find similar materials at a fraction of the price and consider visiting building merchants or reclamation yards, too.'

Some garden layouts can be expensive to work with, and sometimes there’s little above ground to show for the time and money you’ve invested. Go for a design that minimizes the need for extensive groundworks, foundations, and drainage. One or two level plateaux built into the slope, for somewhere to site a dining table or a couple of sun loungers, could be enough ‘useable’ space.

Solutions such as decking are also useful as part of sloping garden. A deck needs just a few foundations for the sub-frame, unlike paved areas, which are either built on top of, or into, a slope, and are therefore much more costly.

Recycled materials often look better than new, particularly around traditional buildings, and it’s possible to pick up a bargain. Reclamation yards can be pricey, especially those in cities, so take a day trip out to a country yard, as most will deliver.

Check Ebay, Gumtree and Freecycle as well as supermarket classifieds. You might not spot exactly what you originally wanted, but with a little imagination, it’s possible to create truly unique and functional features from your finds.

Labor costs can be more than 60 percent of a garden redesign, so spend time considering what you can do yourself. Planting, laying a new lawn, erecting kit-form pergolas and arches, timber raised beds, simple plumbing – even a deck – are well within the scope of the DIY enthusiast. 

You should know your limits, though when it comes to branching out into the rest of your yard space. Paving, brickwork, extensive garden lighting, and features such as dry-stone walls will need specialists. Choose local tradespeople to keep expenditure to a minimum. 

Remember that it’s not just time that buying the right garden tools can save – if your tools are of low quality, they might not be able to get the job done and could even break, meaning you’ll need to buy new ones.

By paying for good quality tools in the first place, you can save more money overall and keep to the same tools for years to come. Kilpatrick, says, 'Using the right tools for the job will save you time and money. Always use sharpened tools in good condition and, if you are planning to cut wood by hand, buy a brand-new handsaw. You will find it much easier to cut with a new saw. If you need specialist tools, hire them. Mixing mortar and concrete by hand is time-consuming and extremely hard work. You can easily hire a cement mixer for a few days at a very low cost. For long runs of fencing, consider hiring a nail gun.'

When you're gardening in a small space on a budget, propagating plants from seeds or cuttings is a good place to start. It is far cheaper than buying small plants and satisfying too, as you watch the young plants that you’ve nurtured grow. You can also collect your own seeds from existing plants in your garden and increase your stock for free. 

Many annuals and biennials, including foxgloves, honesty, Californian poppies and cornflowers, will readily self-sow, too, adding to your floral display for free. Just remove any seedlings that pop up where you don’t want them and replant them elsewhere.

If your garden is in need of emergency TLC – say, because you've just moved in and the garden has been neglected – fast-growing annuals are your answer. Jill Taylor, a full-time homesteader from Happy Farmyard, especially likes growing easy flowers every year: they 'are inexpensive and easy to find, so they're a great way to add some personality to your garden. Try mixing and matching different colors
and textures to create a unique look.' 

Zinnias, sweet peas, nasturtiums, and cosmos are just some of the easy-to-grow annual flowers that will fill your garden quickly. 

You've probably heard this one before, but it bears repeating: your gardening efforts will only ever be as good as your garden soil is. So, poor soil = poor harvest. But, fortunately, if you don't have good soil in your garden, you don't have to replace all of the soil, which would be both exhausting and expensive. 

John Thomas, who runs Backyard Garden Geek, has the following method for improving your soil on the cheap: 'Buy several paint buckets and, using a hole saw bit that you can find at any home improvement store, drill 4-6 large holes in the bottom of each bucket using at least a 2-inch bit. Dig a hole that's wide enough for
the base of your bucket and 2-3 inches deep. 

'Put the bucket in the hole, fill it with high-quality soil that you've purchased from a local garden center, and plant your plant into the good soil. The plant will take off
since its roots are surrounded by nutrient-rich soil, and plants with deep
root systems will eventually have room for their roots to burrow through
holes in the paint bucket and into your native soil.'

Thomas swears by method, telling us that last year he grew 'more tomatoes than my family could eat' using this method 'in hard-packed clay'. Impressive. 

This brilliant tip comes from Vic MacBournie, who recommends using 'existing ornamental grasses as thrillers in containers and window boxes. Last year I divided some of my existing native Northern Sea Oat grasses and used them in our window boxes. In fall, they were pulled out of the window boxes and planted in a separate area of the garden.'

Love fruit and want an orchard in your garden? It's no secret that fruit trees are expensive to buy. Growing fruit trees from seed, though, won't cost you anything and is surprisingly easy. Cherry, avocado, and plum trees are just some of the species that can be grown from seed – including seeds from the fruit you've eaten. The easiest, though, have to be mango trees. If you live in a warm climate, all it takes is tossing a mango seed in some soil – you'll have a fruiting tree in about four years.