I have a lot of greenery in my front garden, which I find a bit boring. With scraps that I had lying around I created these interesting garden stakes to spruce things up. They only take about an hour to make - and creativity knows no bounds for what you can do with them!

Step 1: Gather Scraps & Materials

Take a look around your garage for all of those interesting pieces of scrap wood and metal lying around.

For the scraps to make these 2 garden stakes I used:

birchbark
barnboard siding
old scraps of pallets
Dried pods from my garden, pine needles, etc.
Metal washers, screws, springs, etc.
Other interesting pieces like a ruler, metal upholstery push pins, and a "garden time" scrapbooking feature.

The assembly materials and tools I used were:

Saw to hand cut the pallet to length as well as the stakes
Screws
Drill
Acrylic latex caulk plus silicone (this is a good adhesive when you know that you will be leaving something outside for extended periods. It is durable, seals waterproof and cured caulk is mold and mildew resistant.) I used brown caulk so that you wouldn't notice it.
Caulking gun

Step 2: Design and Assemble

This is the fun part!

Feel free to use these ideas (birdhouses and an owl), but let your scraps decide what your garden stake turns out to be.

I simply laid out my background material (pallet board) and tried out different combinations of scraps. The notes in photo 1 let you know the different pieces that I decided to use. Once I had a layout I liked, I attached everything using the caulking.

For the stake, angle cut a thinner piece of scrap and ensure that it will go into the ground by testing it out. Then screw it into the back of the feature pallet (photo 2).