Give your outside space the razzle-dazzle treatment with neon containers, sizzling artwork and exotic plants. Designer John McPherson, whose Pop Street Garden starred at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show, shows you how...
1. Create boxes from MDF
'Brill' boxes – featuring pop art in reds, blues and whites – in his show garden can be made from MDF and then painted with acrylic paints and then varnished.
2. Bag some powder coated containers
"A lot of these are available commercially, so they are easily accessible and not expensive. You can get them in bright colours including yellow, acid green and pink and they come in different sizes and may be cheaper than buying large ceramic containers. Make sure you put in holes for drainage."
3. Use coloured gravel
"I used aquarium gravel for the show containers," he says. "I thought, if it doesn't kill the fish, it's not going to kill my plants."
4. Be imaginative with planting
"The beauty of a container garden is that you can have two plants which need different conditions in the same container, by planting each individual plant in its pot in the container and then covering the surface with soil and gravel.
"For example, you could have Colocasia esculenta 'Burgundy Stem' paired with an Agave filifera, which needs sandy, gritty soil, so it’s in its own container. The colocasia needs a different soil type, so it can go in its own container within the main container."
5. Take inspiration from pop art icons
"I'm a huge fan of pop art – I was a student in New York in the 1980s, watching that scene. Some of my favourite artists are Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. I love art that is really bright, graphic and colourful."
6. Use masonry paint
If you are thinking of creating your own pop art mural in your outdoor space, you'll need exterior masonry paints, or you can use outdoor acrylics to decorate pots and sculptures, McPherson suggests.
7. Change your pop art planting with the seasons
"You can plant bright bulbs for spring, while in summer I'd have bright pops of summer colour. Absolutely anything goes. You can combine your indoor and outdoor plants in the summer months and take some of the bright pots indoors to enjoy during the winter."
