DUSTY old stepladders and vintage Pepsi crates might not seem the most obvious things to brighten up a garden, but add some terracotta pots and a bit of creative thinking and it could be given a new lease of life.

Helen Hindle is an expert at thinking up new ways to make the most of outside space and is now offering other gardeners inspiration with her Darlington-based business Urban Eden Boutique.

Specialising in new and vintage accessories, making perfect gifts for gardeners, the website sells everything from potting shed essentials to bird houses, gloves and Gardener’s Hack Wax.

Helen, who lives in Hurworth, near Darlington, started the boutique in 2008 with her partner, Colin Raine, as an extension to the landscaping business they still run. The original idea was to focus on landscaping small spaces and after dressing up their own tiny back yard with old-fashioned stepladders and fruit crates, they started collecting similar pieces to decorate other gardens.

Soon they had acquired so much stuff, opening a shop was a natural step.

“When we started the shop, we wanted to stock only products we would be happy to use ourselves and this has determined the ethos,” says Helen. “The idea when we first set up the landscaping was to do small spaces which people often ignore: if people have got a yard, the bins are there, but they don’t dress it or anything. We used to live in a Victorian terrace which had a tiny yard and we dressed it with quite old-fashioned things like step ladders and ended up sourcing lots of pieces. The step ladders look great with lots of old terracotta pots and different plants on and add some height to a little space.”

The boutique sells a range of gardening tools such as vintage Elwell garden shears, and there’s also a vintage wire egg basket, gardener’s muscle rub, a recycled leather apron and selection of soaps and hand creams made from essential oils and beeswax.

The business has a strong eco-friendly focus with products sourced from small independent suppliers and made in the UK from natural materials, with nothing tested on animals. “That is really important to us,” says Helen. “I think we have got higher care standards and quality in this country and that gets ignored.”

Most of the older pieces they acquire come from vintage fairs which they go to every two months (one of the best is Newark, Europe’s biggest collectors’ and antiques fair). They’ve stumbled across lots of old ladders, fruit crates and Pepsi crates. They also sell lanterns made from old Spanish roof tiles with hand-made glass storm covers.

“We turn old serving spoons into herb labels, which are quite unusual,” says Helen. “A lot of the vintage baskets, we plant up as doorstep herb gardens.

We’ve also got some old Italian shutters and they look really nice for dressing a garden, with a mirror in the middle.”

Prices range from a vintage poss tub or dolly tub for £80, to cards for £3.50, which include seeds for growing your own strawberries, salad leaves or forget-me-nots.

Apart from gardening tools, among the items Helen finds most useful are the authentic mill bobbins and twine, which come from a working English textile mill dating from the last century.

She keeps them dotted around the house on windowsills, partly for use and partly because they add a quirky touch.

“The vintage fairs have absolutely everything you can think of – suits of armour, full-size grizzly bears, moose heads – and people are snapping them up. They are really interesting places to go,” says Helen. “There are definitely bargains to be had, but you have to haggle. Some people are really hard bargainers. I’m not.”

Helen’s advice for anyone aiming to liven up their garden or back yard is to look out for interesting pieces, even a couple of old chimney pots and a handful of bedding plants can add extra height.

“For a few quid, you can really make it look different.

A lot of it is about using accessories,” she says.

Having recently downsized and moved house so they could have more outside space, Helen and Colin are currently in the process of doing up their own garden. Although it is still in the early stages, Helen has already got her favourite piece in place – a pair of old stepladders which belonged to her great uncle. “I’ve had them for years and years,”

she says. “They are fab. He was a decorator so they’ve had one life and now they’ve got climbers and lanterns on them, so they’ve had two lives.”