Starting from scratch-my junk stash

How a Flea Market Gardener is born

You may wonder how in the world I became a ‘junque’ gardener. Well, I seem to have always been gardening, but here’s how it began for me.   An old contractor’s wheelbarrow was my first ‘ junk’ gardening item and one that got me started eyeing unique, and funky items set out on trash day. This discovery only encouraged me and before I knew it, I was keeping n eye on all large discarded items set out on trash day.

On my way to the grocery, I spied a hollow pedestal made of solid and heavy concrete, couldn’t believe it was just set by the trash,….almost killed myself and the car by lifting into the passenger side floor.  Lucky my car’s undercarriage wasn’t a bit rusty!

Here it is, though, in my garden today, used as a fountain plant stand.  The pump hose goes up through the pedestal and up through the soil of the pot. Iris love water and can even grow in ponds, so I knew they wouldn’t mind being the star of this rocky stream like area of my garden.  Thyme grows in the foreground and the white blooming plant ‘in the stream’ is Snow in summer’ a good plant to simulate water.  The pedestal stands on some concrete blocks, set inside a half whiskey barrel fountain liner.

I become incurable

On the way back from driving my daughter to school, I began to take a circuitous route through a nearby middle-class neighborhood on Trash Day. I skulked slowly by all the trash cans, shamelessly stopping to collect larger items in good condition.  It’s amazing what people will throw out when they buy new!  Wooden patio furniture, iron urns, a metal camp bed, windows and doors that had been replaced by the homeowners all went into the back of my small truck, one by one.

My metal peacock, terracotta pots, old 2 x 8 redwood, a galvanized planter, large thick cane baskets, I can’t even name all the things I’ve found! All went into the garden to add the style I was coming to love.  Yes, I admit, I was addicted.

All these doors and windows for future projects were moved 300 miles north when I moved from the suburbs of Southern California to the mountains near Yosemite National Park.  Not one word was said, except for this, “Are you keeping these?”   I said a bit tentatively, “Yes.”   Nodding, we all started loading all my doors and windows into an open bed trailer for the first trip up my new home. Here I could finally play with these treasures, I thought, believing I would find a garden project for each one.

Old ladders are often discarded on trash day when a new one is needed. No reason you can’t use them in the garden in many decoraive ways!  A few of these old ladders belonged to my grandpa so they had meaning for me.  I love to use tools my grandparents hands have held. I leaned the ladders against the old goat shed we discovered on the place..they waited patiently for their chance to star in my garden.

This green vintage motel chair was my Grandma’s, much treasured and now 75 years old!   Some of the handle tools are Grandpa’s and some were found at yard sales.  An old, rusty wheelbarrow—pretty blue and discarded by the trash barrels—gets new life as a garden planter filled with bright flowers. It sits on my patio; it leaks, but I call that good drainage!

The story of me and my garden junk continues to this day…each tool and wheelbarrow, each rusty toolbox and antique ceramic pot have a story…of how I found them, what they mean to me and what I eventually use them for in the garden.  They make my garden a very personal and artful space, really a ‘playground’ where I can happily express myself.