Using inexpensive shrubs and conifers in containers, which remain outdoors all year, is an easy way to stretch your gardening dollar.

Putting savings aside, these arrangements can look surprisingly sophisticated and also provide a textural contrast for summer flowers, not to mention added interest in the winter landscape.

I came to this realization after leaving three 1-gallon containers of spirea outdoors all last winter with no protection. When spring came, I expected to carry the desiccated carcasses off to the compost heap. I was shocked, however, when the plants leafed out and began to grow. That's when it occurred to me; some of these common plants are that way for a reason. They are tough as nails.

I promptly ran out to one of the box stores and purchased, for very minimal amounts, a selection of conifers and small shrubs in 1-gallon containers. Evergreens such as such as junipers, arborvitae, chamaecypris and the ubiquitous mugo pine were readily available in a variety of sizes. To add some contrast and a pop of color, I purchased some euonymus and cotoneaster, which were equally cheap. I also inserted the reborn spireas into the mix. All were planted in containers filled with a general potting mix.

Approaching the containers like a flower arrangement, I mixed in lysmachia (creeping jenny), herbs and even a few lirope, or whatever else suited my fancy. A reproduction garden gnome inhabits one, three small tin pink flamingos another. This isn't rocket science; let your imagination run wild.

Now that we are heading into winter, the spireas have surprised me once again, by providing a warm yellow-orange fall color which looks great juxaposed against conifer boughs.

Jeffrey Smith of Highland Park, a PG Great Gardens Contest winner this year and a pro at making common things look extraordinary, came up with the same idea.

"I saw a couple of gardens in magazines that had what normally goes in the ground, in pots. It had that Asian sort of bonsai feeling, so I thought I'll try it."

He chose his pots carefully, but the plants he used are the same garden-variety specimens that I made use of.

"It's the pot that makes it. You can put a $5 plant in a great pot and it looks like a million bucks," he says.

So far I have limited my all-season plantings to containers that are frost-proof.

Mr. Smith, however, has thrown caution to the winter winds. He was warned the ceramic pots he bought at Gardener's Eye would not withstand the temperature fluctuations of Pittsburgh seasons, but he left them out anyway. Other pots, picked up cheaply elsewhere, he figured would crack and fall apart, but he didn't stress over it.

After four years, Mr. Smith has no busted pots, no dead plants.

He has about 15 or so containers that stay on display all year. When asked if he provides them with any special care, he replies:

"I don't bring them in, I don't do anything. I do water them on nice days in the winter if it gets a little warm, to make sure they have moisture, and that's it."

During the holidays, he goes one step further.

"I'll add some cut pine boughs and holly to them, and they look really beautiful."