A Junkety garden, just ‘our’ style

Teresa Djukic, who lives and gardens in Illinois, has recently discovered Flea Market Gardening and I believe she’s had ‘our style,’ before it was ‘cool.’  After seeing the photos she sent in, we were sure you all would love her garden as much as we did.

Teresa tells us, “Here are my gardens and the shed that my father built for me back in 2004!  It’s been fun to see the growth of the garden around the building that you see today.”

“The story is…  I had always wanted an outhouse in the garden of our new home. We moved into our home in October of 1995. And with any new home and the vision for a finished product, it takes years of planning!”

“I started collecting old barn wood from fallen barns in the area for my project. I had taken a picture of a local outhouse that was small but adorable. This was my inspiration and I shared the picture with my mother who has been an antique dealer in Missouri for 45 years. She gave me the front door for the building and the tin for the roof was given to me from my cousin Glenda who also lives in Missouri. The whole thing was coming together and had already become a total family endeavor.”

“My father, who was an engineer, came to visit with my mother and grandmother for a weekend to build my little outhouse. I was so excited! My husband and father started planning the building and we began by looking at the size of the one that I had taken a picture of.”

“The discussion became “Why build something that would be purely ornamental when we could make it functional, too?” — It would be nice to have an outbuilding that was more than ornamental… And from that, my building was born!”

“In obtaining the wood for the building, my supply was not going to cut it, so we started looking for other sources of old wood. A dear friend of mine, Sue, had gone with me to take pictures of the outhouse. She had offered to help supply wood but I had declined, thinking my building size warranted a minimal amount of material. That changed with the building the size of a true garden shed — We used almost all of the wood she had stockpiled, in addition to all that I had been collecting.”

“My dear grandmother, God rest her soul, sat on our deck for hours upon hours all bundled up in a coat and hat watching and supervising the building project. With arthritic hands she stitched the sign you see on the chair in one of the pictures, “Djukic Outhouse” which I also treasure.”

“It took an entire weekend and as you can see the “Outhouse” is the most beautiful thing in my gardens. I look at and treasure it everyday, in addition to the memories of building it and the family and friends that helped to make it possible.”

“My husband and I sit on the deck and enjoy what we have built together. We are blessed and our home is truly our happy place!”

“We have three dogs, Sookie, a Golden Retriever, and a kitten, Cinder, who are always in the gardens with me!!! I know you will not use all the pictures but it will give you kind of a flavor for our yard.”

“My mother lives in Kansas City and has always had beautiful gardens. She has been in the antique business and as we traveled looking for treasures I was always picking up primitives and rusty stuff!!”

“We moved to this area where we have an amazing Flea Market, Kane County Flea Market. I started collecting rusty and galvanized items that were unusual as accent pieces. It got to be the joke with my co workers and friends that if was rusty “T” would love it! What is fun is to see friends adopt the same eclectic gardening design.”

“Mom’s garden has an old smoke house that she had transferred several miles from my grandparents home to her yard!!  Another great story…”