Why do we love garden junk?

On our Flea Market Gardening site, Wanda Bailey wonders WHY she buys the garden junk she buys?

There have been references to this being a support group for Junk buyers, hauling home all sorts of free and cheap stuff that no one else wants. So, think about it and tell us WHY you like buying junkola and how you got started doing so. I have to think about that one, too. ~~ Sue

You know a junk lover lives close by…

 Here’s what you said:

Jackie Wilber I love junk because it’s free, preserves history, can be recycled, and uses my eclectic sense of creativity to transform it. Enough said 🙂

Pami Taylor Hmmm …. I could make a small greenhouse with all those windows and doors …

Jacqui Rogers Judging by the above pic all you need now is four walls – I think that explains the love of junk to a T.

Linda Harrison I look at these windows and remember the magazine article that showed the frame on a wall with cute vintage evening bags hung in each ‘frame’….already had the window and 2 purses but had to find more purses….then there was the solid door turned into a table on HGTV so hauling things homes is a sign of great creative mind, a desire to create beauty out of (tr)ashes… 😉

Jane Weeks Pictured stuff isn’t junk! It’s wonderful bits of history that can still serve many useful purposes. (I have quite a few old windows, too, but I used some in my new (read ‘using old stuff’) kitchen cupboard wall!

Patty Fitch Hicks The whole reason I like junk is that I see good use still in it. I do love the patina of past years too. Makes a place feel like its been there forever. It’s never really junk to me but things that just need to find a new use or new home where they can still be used and appreciated. Like in my garden…lol

Penny Duckworth Why I bring home junk, it reminds me of simpler times. also it needs to be loved by someone. I was the first of the baby boomers, things where hard to come by still and my parents would re-purposed items. You didn’t run out and buy new.

Penny Duckworth Also the old was better made than today products

Wheelbarrow full of sedum

Patricia Short McCall Elkins Revamping, recycling and finding new ways for it’s use! Creativity is inspiring and uplifting!

Brenda Skime I love having pieces that, if they could talk, would have such stories to tell!!

Zola Denio Can’t stand to see good old things that can still be used, destroyed—Who knows—we might need them 20 years from now!!!

Nicole Frye Seebart It makes my heart happy! I love to think about the people that worked hard to craft the item that I save from the garbage. I love old needle points, linens, etc. & I’ve just found the last one I needed to frame several up in an old 9 pane window to display in my home. I enjoy things in my home that you can’t just go buy at Target, the hunt is almost as much fun as displaying it. You can’t find that quality anymore & when it is gone, it is gone forever. 😉

Flea Market Gardening I guess I started going to swap meets as a young girl with my neighbor-friends and saw how they valued old things, then an old German neighbor gave me a child’s dressing cabinet in exchange for me driving him to synagogue every Saturday. I hadn’t thought of that in a long time. I still have that cabinet. ~~ Sue

Susan Coffey Kirby Just ’cause it’s fun! You can use the right side of your brain & let your creative juices flow!

Marilyn Ward The two best wheelbarrows I have are junk finds – hard rubber tires, rusty or peeling paint, but they do a lot of hard work. The one I bought new a few years ago has a pneumatic tire that will NOT stay inflated, so it’s unusable; I drilled drainage holes in it, and it’s going to be filled with sedum and succulents. I love JUNK!

Donna Herman I like primitives and I like crafting so I love combining them….everyone that comes to my home always says you have such neat stuff…and I say to them “see that “junk” pile out there ,without that I wouldn’t have this”….lolololol

Betty Lee Wiggs  Junk is a part of history, our past. Lots of times it brings back wonderful memories of those years gone by and the “remember whens”. Just look at something and try to think of three different ways to use it. Now getting the time to use it is something else.

Lisa Moelter’s photo of some roof top junkola

Flea Market Gardening Did anyone start by reusing old family kitchen things? I still love using my Mom’s old stand mixer and my Grandma’s red wooden handled kitchen utensils. ~~ Sue

Marilyn Ward In a corner of my bedroom stands a rusty old dress form that is always dressed for the season – cotton dress in the summer with a straw hat; hand knit sweater and skirt in the winter with a wool hat. I picked ‘her’ up from a friends garbage pile many years ago.

Trudi Wilbur Ooooh I ♥ those windows and doors! I love creating things so to have all the junk laying around just keeps my mind going. 🙂 Creating is my way of balancing life.

Jeanie Merritt I was my father’s son.( let me explain) He had 5 girls and no boys so I, being the oldest, got to be the one who helped him with the gardening, drove the tractor, helped him change the spark plugs in his car, etc, etc.. AND he loved flea marketing and auctions… so along I went. Sometimes I was embarrassed as a young girl helping dad haul all of the “junk” back to the truck and into a shed at home until he “figure out” what to do with it..I just shook my head and didn’t voice my opinion( you didn’t in those days if you were a child). Now I am my father…. Going to flea markets and auctions and carrying” junk” home until I figure out what to do with it…If Dad were still alive he would be smiling!!!!

Donna Herman When I was young(and dumb)we had a old man that lived in the same town and he was known as the “junk man” of the town and people would wonder why he would want all the “junk” in and around his yard….i could answer their questions now for them……CAUSE HE WAS HAVING SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!!

Georgianna Velardi’s photo of some mouthwatering junk letters….

Sal Salamander When my father was alive he had a flea market with a good friend, my grandmother had an Antique Store. It is in my genes.

Robbie Tatro Some of you will get to be on TV! “Hoarders” The one lady who lost her cat years before her episode but it had died IN her house. That memory keeps me from going over the edge. www.freecycle.com

Marie Niemann It started way back when I was a kid and would bring cool stuff home I found on the piles people would put out for the trash pick up. Going to the dump was more fun than going to a carnival! Still collecting and will not stop even if I win the lottery! When?

Kathleen Groh Levy Marie, I’m with you! I am a junker from way back. To me the biggest attractions of junk are (1) the hunt for a treasure that costs next to nothing or costs nothing at all and (2) finding a unique and oddball way of using it to decorate. Both are amazing and fun challenges.

Donna Herman Robbie..I am scared of just that very thing….shhhh!!! lol

Dianne Harbin Voss Started out because we couldn’t afford new things! Now I just love being creative and a little crazy!

Joanne Nixon I think I inherited the gene…my dad collected tools, my mother collected shoes…and I love junk…my daughter called me a “hoarder” ….what a silly thought….lol. my dad bought a case of tuna thinking what a great buy it was….turned out it was tuna CAT food…and they didn’t even have a cat…..lol….that was one of the funniest things he ever did….I still think about it when I see “tuna”..

Cherrie Carine’s photo of the Brimfield Barn

Flea Market Gardening Yes, Robbie and Donna, when your family tells you that the people from ‘American Pickers’ is coming out to put you on the show but the ‘Hoarders’ crew shows up, you know you’re in for an ‘Intervention’! ~~ Sue

Donna Herman Hahaha! Thats a scary thought….and I have to say something about “American Pickers,” ..first I LOVE the show..second I think they have gotten us pickers/junkers some respect…lol

Kathy Witherington Gilbert I really don’t know, it is a strange desire, maybe,  because I see a idea, get creative and make something or maybe it is because when I see these wonderful treasures I know it is something you cannot find at your locale chain store!

Junk ladders

Nancy K. Meyer Most all of my garden RUST is from friends’ or family memories. I garden with Hostas, Rust and Memories. Plan on typing out a detail list this winter to go with my many garden photos. Don’t know if anyone cares about the stories, but I do and it will give me a winter project.

Renee’ Barclift Most of the new stuff they make nowadays is junk.

Sal Salamander Hey, love the chairs in the photo…

Sue Gerdes Why I drag junk home? What a silly question, the junk from years ago has quality that we don’t make anymore. Everything is mass produced and we live in a “throw away” society. Things from the past are not hollow… they are solid, they are not pressed… they are cut and welded with such wonderful designs and elegance.  Junk that I drag home is made to withstand time and wear. I love making things from these beauties, to breath new life into them and save them from the dumps and to show others what can be done so they can do the same and say with pride “I made that.”  Look at all the good things saving junk does for us, we can save space in our landfills and save buying materials from stores and make something no one else has and it gives us pride….I also drag junk home cause I am cheap. ;o) ~Flea2Fab

Debra L. Martin I would pick it up or buy that stuff. good stuff. I see a green house just laying there. Yes I am a junker and I lov it!

Annie Grossart-Steen It’s all ’bout the Quest for Me~ and the places we go and the people we meet along the way….The junk is just a bonus! It’s not knowing what your going to find that makes it so much fun!!! Have a good Day 🙂

Wanda Bailey I think we just feel bad for the things that get tossed aside, and think we have to rescue them.

Kirk Willis Some of my favorite memories are going garage sale shopping with my Dad and aunts… We didn’t have much growing up…and neither did my parents, so, garage sales were a blast. I inherited the gene! LOL But….I have a photo of my work table in the garage… it is overloaded with treasures…almost an embarrassment! LOL I thought of posting it here to motivate me… I am a SUPER neatnik except for my work area! :o)

Debbie Groff-Childs Because it is fun to find good things and then even more fun to find things to do with it 🙂

Old galvanized planter by the front door

Robbie Tatro Wanda, be very careful with men. The ones that need to be rescued CAN’T be! Although my husband and my dog were both second hand hounds and quite the keepers.

Nell Howard Stelzer I have always liked old junk ! I love crafting and repurposing,in the house and in the gardens !

Lynne Glover Mann I grew up with parents who never threw anything away and re-purposed everything. Later in life Daddy would go to auctions and buy box lots of ‘stuff’ . It was like Christmas going through them when he got home. I have continued the love of junking and have it throughout my home and gardens and now even started volunteering at a place called the ‘Scrap Exchange’ a reuse, re-purpose organization that strives to keep ‘junk’ out of the landfill. Junk is a part of my life. 🙂

Gail Brunke I love out pickin’ and rescue that Old stuff… growing up on a farm and just knowing you didn’t always have the money to buy new, you repaired and repaired … each piece has a story and when I pick it up in my hands & hold it that piece begins to talk. It’s in the blood 🙂

D Diane Weiss It has character. Some of the old distressed colors cannot be copied! Almost anyone can make something out of almost nothing! Just takes some imagination! The old adage – One man’s trash is another man’s treasure rings TRUE!!

Wanda Bailey Robbie…my husband and two of my dogs are second hand hounds …I wouldn’t trade them….except for the one dog…he bites! :0)

Debra L. Martin my first memory of picking/junkin was out looking for old wood from the torn down outhouses. so Mr. Davis could build us girls a playhouse in the back yards. Ohhh it was a beautiful site and very colorful …loved it!

Robbie Tatro My mom came to visit and saw all the old auction stuff my husband bought. She lived thru the depression as a teenager and adult. Mom said, “It was old crap back then, it’s old crap now, let’s go to Walmart and buy something good!” I still have that old crap furniture and can’t help but laugh at the memory.

Kathleen Hussey Switzer  Because, deep deep down in my soul, I am cheap..

Georgianna Velardi’s photo of some mouthwatering junk letters….

Brenda Small I think you must have a very creative mind and be able to think outside the box. Making something completely different than what its original intended use was gives me a happy high. Saving things from the dump is also a good reason. The thrill of a cool find…My mind races to think of something amazing I can make it into. Just plain fun and creativity! Since I was very young I have looked at life in a creative way..guess it rubbed off from my Mum who was always making stuff out of anything. An inexpensive way to keep 5 children busy when there was not a lot of money around.

Dianne Harbin Voss Years ago, I was out for a walk in the neighborhood…I saw a whole set of wicker furniture waiting for the garbage man to come by…I RAN home, told my husband and he got in our little Mazda and drove over…after he crammed what he could… into the back of our car, tired one chair on the roof and drove with one arm out the window holding on to the other chair, (our car was a5 speed too)…it was quite a sight, let me tell you…but it was a great set and we used it for years!

Vicki Childress I love junk…. for most of the reasons listed above but most especially because of treasured memories from my past. My parents and grandparents were great at making do or remaking and repairing things. I think their efforts showed great skill and ingenuity. I remember my grandpa whittling a replacement spindle for one of their dining room chairs. He also “fixed” a leak in an old enamel washpan by covering the leak with a bit of warm wax. Today I really love having different things that remind me of those days. I was a grown woman before I understood or could begin to realize that my grandparents were very poor. I had always considered them very rich. I wish my grandpa knew that!

Melissa Pride Does there have to be a “why”?? 🙂

Garden Whimsies by Mary I’m with you Melissa!!!

Why do YOU love junk?  ~~ Sue

You may also like:

15 essentials for Flea Market outings

Thrift shop shopping…for the garden

Laura’s antique ‘Little Shop’ garden

Flea Market Gardener’s shopping list

Shirley’s SHed ANtiques

Junk garden shopping at The Barn

A favorite junk store and my best day

Tips from the workshop: Annie Grossart-Steen