Inspo: How To Banish Boring (& Ugly!) Bins

We like the same things, you and I. How do I know? ‘Cause the things I squeal about in ‘real’ life and then post on social media are the same ones I get heaps of comments and DMs about. Case in point – the bestest bin store I ever did see.I clocked something similar on Pinterest a couple of years ago when I think, from memory, that a very clever garden designer at one of the RHS shows had created something similar in one of the show spaces. But being a dozy dope, I didn’t save the image and completely forgot about it until the other week. Mr M and I were thoroughly enjoying a back alley in Levenshulme, and that’s not a phrase you’ll hear me say again, let me tell you. It was a gorgeously sunny afternoon on one of Manchester’s Open Garden’s Days (Levy and Burgage to be precise) and one of the numbered spaces on the map wasn’t actually a garden, but a sliver of cobbles linking the houses. Here, a group of green fingered and community minded neighbours have created the most wonderful area between the terraced rows, with flowers spilling out of shabby suitcases and cracks in walls, pots filled with colour and painted palettes showcasing their green wares.Then every few yards, were dotted the bin stores of our dreams. Let’s face it, it’s not easy making plastic wheelie bins look good. They’re a complete bloody eyesore, made worse by the fact there are so damn many of them. Instead of councils sensibly working towards & encouraging communal recycling, every household in the land now has 56 bins each to shoehorn into gardens, alleys and yards. It’s ridic, but it’s the system we’ve got. And ’cause we’re British, we just tut and deal with it.

Unless you’re the Brecon Avenue Posse, then you do something about it. And what do you do? You pimp your bins. And you pimp them with enough panache to win an RHS and North West In Bloom medal no less.
Over the bins are constructed simple timber frames, on top of which sit what are effectively timber trays. Said trays are filled with not just soil but lots and lots of good drainage grit, to ensure they don’t become water logged because, well, you know, Manchester. Then they’ve been planted. And how. Chives and thyme, alpines and cacti, begonias, pansies and sea pinks, all flourishing and looking absolutely spectacular. It was so energising but so peaceful, in fact the only noise was the sound of Mr Moregeous’s brain ticking loudly. I could literally see him weighing it all up and working out how he could do it. Can you see it?!Working out where in the garden it’d go, what it would be made of, how long it’d take him, whether we’d need to buy anything and when he could fit it into our already hectic schedule. But how could we not? I mean, if you’re going to build something to house or hide your bins, wouldn’t you want something which could be lushly planted and ornately blooming through the stinky summer months, the flowers masking any whiffy smells from fortnightly collections (yep, that me, moaning about bins again #petpeeve)

Guess how it all turned out, a mere week later….

So happy with himself, he’s already built it!! I’ll properly list a How To when it’s finished but honestly, there’s no messing around here.

See it, like it, do it.
Obviously it’ll be designed to within an inch of its life, with charcoal grey sides and white stones and useful herby type plants, that’ll be my input. Plus I might need to move the apple tree. And clean my once white pathway edging, god almighty look at it! But, the new store is starting to take shape and I already wonder why we didn’t do it before…… oh yeh, cause the garden’s been a reclamation / renovation yard for three years, that might have something to do with it.

Anyhow, that’s the bins hidden when we have guest lunches for our DIY days on the driveway trestles and no more shoving them out onto the road – yippee! What do you think, do you like the idea? Are you tempted? x