A Spring Makeover For Your Yard

Green Thumb Or Not, Make Your Garden Beautiful

(CBS)  Now that warmer weather has arrived, many people are thinking about sprucing up the yard. Even if you don't have a green thumb, there are ways to turn your garden into a lovely extension of the home.

Susanna Salk, special project editor for House and Garden magazine, visited The Early Show with your springtime shopping list. "There are so many wonderful items for the garden now," she told co-anchor Julie Chen. "Even if you don't have a green thumb, just to kind of spruce up how your yard looks."

For the garden area
Some of this year's gardening accessories are practically as pretty as the flowers. Salk brought a garden tote decorated with green trimming and colorful vegetables. She also showed cheerful pink gardening gloves, and a pair of shiny green clogs with fluffy pink flowers attached.

She also had a solution for the tangle of hose that can be a garden eyesore — a handmade copper hose pot from Frontgate, $169, a nice example of both form and function. "That's very much what it's about in the garden," said Salk. "Things that look as beautiful as they are practical." And from Ballard Designs, a tin potting soil container, $49, which eliminates dirty bags piling up in the tool shed.

For the passionate gardener, Salk recommends Frontgate's teak folding ladder ($225). It adds an additional two feet to your reach — helpful for watering hanging plants and flowers or for trimming trees. The teak outdoor sink ($595) is another good investment for the passionate gardener. It has shelving and a hanging grid for your garden tools.

Creating an outdoor room
The rest of your outdoor space, Salk says, "should be an extension of your home. Give it as much thought as you would your living room."

She displayed a dining table, $815, and chairs from Restoration Hardware, along with garden arm chairs with cushions. Underneath the table, an outdoor rug from Ballard Designs, that can withstand the elements. Acrylic table settings from Crate and Barrel are stylish but inexpensive.

For really going in style, Salk suggests laying down colorful mosaic stepping stone tiles from Ballard. "I thought it would be a fun thing for your children to kind of create a path through your garden by just putting them down on the grass," she said. "It's a very easy way to kind of jazz up your outdoor environment."