It's almost time to hit the nursery and pick up some splendid starts, flowers, seeds, and more for spring, but if you're like me, you might be facing a small problem: most of your gardening containers are pretty blah. Let's face it: nice flowerpots are expensive, and unless you happen to be rolling in dough, you might not want to shell out the big bucks for a fancy pot. Luckily, you can make your own gorgeous garden accessories for deliciously low prices, and I cruised Hometalk to pick out some especially cool examples.

Nothing cool about these! These painted flowerpots from ConcordCottage are hot, hot, HOT. I love the neon colors of the flowerpots countered by the bright, aggressive flowers. If you're feeling grim this spring, these will definitely, ah, brighten things up a bit.

Use chalkboard stickers or chalkboard paint for these simple, understated, and lovely flowerpots. And you don't have to limit your efforts to herbs, although these do look charming...

If you've been wanting an offbeat way to show off your house number, have you considered writing it on your flowerpots? These house number flowerpots are great -- just make sure neighborhood kids don't scramble them for fun and confuse the UPS driver! (Seriously though, if you have a prankster problem...maybe time to reinforce that San Diego fence?)

I love transfers, and they happen to take really well to terra cotta. If you'd like some frou-frou French-inspired flowerpots, you don't need to fork over a fat stack of francs at that pretentious garden store -- just make your own!

Another example of a transfer, this time with tissue paper and modge podge. Make sure to seal these flowerpots well so the patterns don't bleed!

Angie in Nashville says: "don't fear the gold leaf!" These totally sweet pots are easy to make, and you can add gold leaf designs to your flowerpots too.

Tara's buck and doe flowerpots are understated and totally classy -- and they're the only deer you want in your garden!

Katie Marks writes for Networx.com.