The garden in winter can look quite dull and bare so anything that you can add to lift the gloom must be welcome. Garden art placed strategically so that it can be viewed from indoors will be a feature that you can enjoy through the cold months until spring comes round again. Making your own garden art can be easy enough provided you have the right ideas. Once again the Empress of Dirt comes to the rescue with her 10 Winter Garden Art Ideas.

Finding Beauty In A Long, Cold Winter

If you live in a cold climate like I do ( Ontario, Canada) and you love gardening, the gap between fall and spring seems impossibly long.
But there are ways to keep the garden vibrant while we’re waiting for the warmth and light to return:

• Grow vegetables both indoors and outdoors: 6 Tips For Growing Winter Veggies.
• Encourage winter birds by providing good quality bird seed, suet, and fresh water.
• Keep durable garden art outdoors year-round to add beauty and interest.

Best Materials
The most durable garden art is made from stone, metal, wood, and glass. Yes, glass. If it’s fairly thick ( ??” or more) and doesn’t break when dropped, it should do fine outdoors in the winter.
It can all look quite beautiful with fresh, fallen snow.
Avoid thin plastics as they break easily in extreme cold.
Here’s some garden art I keep outdoors all year round:

This garden chandelier has been outside year round for 12 years!

1. Junk Art Garden Chandelier

1. Start with a kitchen colander or old metal lamp shade.
2. Hang marbles and lamp crystals from copper wire.
3. Use GE Silicone II sealant to attach flat marbles to the lamp shade.

Cardinal Cafe sign in the winter garden

2. Funky Garden Sign

Start with aged barn board.

• Make letters with nails, tacks, jute twine, paint, or wire.
• Add trinkets hanging from hooks.
  Here I’ve used a little watering can, birdhouse, fairy chair, cardinal decoration, and suet for the birds.

DIY Dish flowers in the garden

3. Garden Art Dish Flowers

• Use glass and metal dishes to create garden art flowers.
• If the glass is thick, it will not break in the cold weather.
• How to make dish flowers:

Read the rest at Ebay Buying Guides which is also the source for the images