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8:11 pm
January 1, 2010
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Hi! Love to garden and I'm always on the look for containers for flowers. Just found an old tin log cabin syrup that I'm going to plant some thyme in it and a old granite colander to put a plant in. Just read about a tip to store your twine for use in your garden-put it in a quarky old tea kettle and pull the twine thru the spout! Happy gardening. Alanna
8:32 pm
January 19, 2011
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We have a large stainless steel tub in our back yard. My husband thinks it was the innards of an old washing machine. I am thinking of making it into a container herb garden. I have a concrete swan full of babies breath, but I don't think that is really unusual. Other than that the rest of my containers are pretty much the usual flower pots and window boxes. I have a few porches I want to group them on cause I am not quite ready to tackle the big overgrown flower beds that my MIL had her bulbs in, and my flower starts are ready to be planted. The beds are likely to take all summer to thin.
My mom once filled an old claw footed tub with flowers out in front of her antique store. It did attract alot of attention to the store.
9:05 pm
January 1, 2010
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Hi! I have a old wring washer with a copper insert on on a piece of stone in my garden. I plant flowers in it. Also, a old granite coffee pot filled with flowers. Be on the outlook for any quirky glass shades from a ceiling lite. I use one in my garden among my all white flowers. I bring it in for the winter. Also, I have a antique no-parking sign hanging on the porch of my potting shed. Keep the ideas coming! I almost forgot- I have old wooden shoes painted off-white with sedum in them.
9:05 pm
October 17, 2008
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I have a couple of the old pots that KFC used to use for boiling water. They're huge…bigger than my 23 qt canner. (I'd originally gotten them to use as a double boiler to make HUGE batches of soap in on the stove…they are too tall to fit under the fan hood.) I have some cedar seedlings planted in them now. I got the seedlings about 5 years ago and they still have a ways to go before they need to be planted. So they'll stay in these until they're ready.
I also have an old tea kettle that had small holes in the bottom that will planted with flowers on the deck.
I've also got a couple old milk cans that a flower pot sits right inside…you can't see the pot, so it looks like the flowers are planted in the milk can.
I'm sure there's more stuff out in the shed that will come out as I need them…..
9:29 pm
February 22, 2010
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My grandmother had flowers and plants in…old milk bucket, brass kettle, granite wash basin, coffee cans, lard buckets, coal bucket, chamber pot, and an old tree stump.
I have had a plastic mop bucket, teapots, crockpot(ceramic insert) cookie jar that had a broken lid, a plastic coffee can inserted into a wickerbasket, cowboy boots, workboots, plastic tote basket, 3 compartment plastic caddy, plastic gallon ice cream bucket, old worn out wooden ice cream churn bucket…I am sure there are others. I would just stick them in whatever happened to be handy. Sometimes I would see something at a garage sale that might work for plants or flowers.
This year I haven't even thought about flowers, I am moving kinda slow
. We did plant some squash in an old wash tub this year and a tomato in a five gallon bucket.
10:00 pm
December 28, 2008
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Oh – what a great topic! At least for our yard, for sure because we have all sorts of repurposed "treasures" with stuff planted in them.
Let's see – there's an old coal bucket, a spitoon, an aqua commode bowl, a white commode tank (works great for some mints to keep them corralled and give some height in a spot that needs it), concrete blocks used as edging for raised beds with thyme and chives planted in some of the holes and annuals in some of them. We've also used old tires arranged decoratively, filled with dirt with the edges covered with stones. That one actually turned out better than I ever expected. We have also used tires to hold dirt along a creek, but that was a functional issue, not for looks.
We have an old birdcage stand that can hold a small hanging basket, but it is now so old that I only ask it to support a few odd pieces of copper these days. We have used old shipping boxes as window boxes, and in a former life, I, too, had a claw-footed cast iron tub filled with flowers in the back yard.
Oh! Almost forgot the antique wheelbarrow! It has chrysanthemums and some various annuals.
6:35 am
July 24, 2010
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Big Daddy tells his friends that he can bring home any old junk as long as he tells me it's a flower planter! And I usually do get to plant flowers in SOME of it. I have sedum and blackberry lillies planted in the valve cover from a Mercedes. There is a Christmas fern growing in a piece of hollow log. We took the top 1/3 of a rusted out galvanized trash can and sunk it into the ground with the bird feeder pole in the middle. It makes a great flower bed with bulbs and annuals in it. I have water lillies in half of an old pool filter. Every year I plant purslane in a child's old metal wagon. I also use old discarded metal pots and pans. I love the idea of the twine in the teapot. I have an old aluminum coffee pot I was going to plant in, but may try to adapt it for string. Can't wait to hear other ideas!
7:03 am
March 3, 2011
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I used to drive past a house way out in the woods that had a whole car as a planter! It was a convertible with it's top down and was just full of flowers the first time I saw it. I guess they got tired of it because it's gone now but I think of it every time I pass that house!
8:51 am
October 18, 2010
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Jerseymom, love the old car idea! I can just see it now…
8:52 am
February 6, 2011
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My mom puts flowers in just about anything she can–extra large teacups, etc. But the real reason I wanted to comment was her latest idea. It is for the garden, but not for plants. She found some antique glass ceiling light covers–the round, ornate, beautiful ones– and found discounted birdbath bases and makes birdbaths out of them.. They could even be placed on the ground or a stump. She found some sort of rubber ball that she drives a screw through and into the base to seal the hole (lightbulb). These light shades can be found almost anywhere for next to nothing and are beautiful, heavy glass in pretty colors. I suppose they could even be used for planters.
Another idea she is planning is a shepherd's hook- type thing made out of an old lamp stand– the kind that has the arms going both directions.
I use an old metal piece from an old gate or screen door as a trellis to help support some tall phlox. They are beautiful peeking through it! I also have an antique bucket that I plant and hang from a shepherd's hook with trailing flowers in it.
10:18 am
February 10, 2009
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We have a pile of clay drainage tiles, I'm thinking I need to bury some along one of the beds 'ends up' at varying heights and plant some flowers and herbs in them.
You guys are really giving me some inspiration! Now we just need a few days without rain!
10:23 am
February 19, 2011
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I found a old metal chicken feeder and my daughter has discovered "Hens and Chickens" and wants to grow some. Perfect place for them don't you think? I think we will close the lid and the can poke through the openings.
10:44 am
January 17, 2011
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Down here in the south….I have this round thing that used to be used in tobacco barns…I have NO idea what it is called but it is good for climbing vines….it is about 2 1/2' tall and just as round. I just direct them around it.
For my wisteria, I used an old metal porch post…you know, the cheap ones that tried to look fancy! I buried it with the wisteria when I planted them so now I have a sort of wisteria tree.
I have a piece of a hollow log that I haven't figured out what to do with yet.
I have an old double wash tub in one of my beds with flowers.
Since I worked retail for 30+ yrs., I have some metal display pieces I also use as trellis.
I have a child's potty chair "pot" that I punched holes in & hung from my fence w/flowers and also an old 12" tall copper bucket that already had holes!
I have 7 metal wheels scattered around different locations…2 have honeysuckle running thru them.
I have 5 "garden totems" that I made in different beds. I'm including a link so you can see what garden totems look like…I just love them! Most of mine are from thrift store or yard sale finds!
2:09 pm
August 6, 2010
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I have a couple of iron bed frames as trellises, and my "redneck koi pond" is an oblong galvanized water tank with feeder goldfish in it, along with water lilies and rushes. The goldfish were about an inch long when I bought them 3 years ago–they are now just about big enough to filet! 
2:12 pm
August 6, 2010
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Karen–what do you use to glue your pieces together? They are gorgeous, and I would like to try that. Are they threaded onto rods?
2:32 pm
February 10, 2009
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Sparrowgrass, I'm butting in because I was talking to a lady at a flea market who makes these and other things similar, and she uses E6000 craft glue. I use it with my beads and it works a treat on most any non-porous material, but be careful on plastics with it. It melts some plastics. She told me that the magazine she got the idea from said to use copper pipe, but she didn't want to spend the money for that, so she uses iron re-bar, with occasionally a little copper if it's going to show in between things.
I've been collecting glassware to try some things too! I'm very interested in hearing what kinds of glue others use as well.
2:56 pm
August 6, 2010
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Thank you ma'am. I just happen to have some copper left over from a plumbing project, and a great thrift store right here in town! I will get right on this project–just as soon as I get the garden planted, the lawn mowed, the floor swept, the dollhouse finished. . . .
4:38 pm
December 28, 2008
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We had a pretty good discussion of the garden towers here: http://chickensintheroad.com/forum/the-country-garden/decorative-garden-towers/?value=garden&type=1&include=3&search=2
I just checked, and the link to the instructions still works. So there you go, sparrowgrass, and anyone else who is interested in building some!
4:54 pm
February 10, 2009
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I also read on one of the sites that a glue called "Lexel" is good for glass. Just for another option! Thanks for reminding us of that other discussion Pete! I'm off to see what I have vs what I need for one of those topsy towers of clay pots!
4:21 pm
May 5, 2011
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I use an old (sterilized) toilet to plant mints and herbs. I have an old tire that has herbs in it. I have a bird bath that leaked from day one, that I use for strawberries. I have even tucked things in cinder blocks and use all sorts of containers. I think it adds a lot of interest to a garden!!
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