Create A Rustic Retreat

Lots of gardeners have been busy all summer cultivating a beautiful outdoor space. Why not create a small place in all that beauty, where you sit back and enjoy your hard work.

The Early Show's resident green thumb Charlie Dimmock has some ideas for making a rustic retreat.

Old Rustic Chair - This is for decoration only. Use a chair that weathers naturally, giving it the old, bleached-out look. Some people have chairs like this sitting in their garages. With a little work and creativity, the old chair becomes the hot spot to look in the garden.

To make the chair the focal point, you must put a climber on it and put the chair in front of a tree. Dimmock shows a honeysuckle (climber) going around the chair and leading into a birch tree directly behind it. The tree is beautiful and so is the honeysuckle, which eventually will get really big. Other climbers like sweet peas or clematis can also be used. Choosing a climber depends on how much light you are getting and the type of climber available in season.

Turf Seat - Get a barrel and only use one half of it. Put soil and turf inside. Cut the turf so that it fits perfectly in the barrel. You can easily sit on the turf top. If you want, you can plant flowers in the barrel. Dimmock plants mandevilla because it is a bright color. Make sure to use trellis. But be careful about using scented plants in and around the barrel and trellis because many of them have spines on their backs.

Rustic Table With Hole In It - All you need to do for this is find a plant you want to drop down into the table. Cut a hole the size of the planter. Place the plant in the hole. It will lie much lower on the table. Depending on the size of the table, you can cut more than one hole.

If you are not using the hole for a plant you can always put a bucket of ice in it and put the plants on top of the table. It does not matter which plants/flowers you choose to go inside the hole. Choose whatever is in flower.