Penny Lee's years old white porcelain pot with little Dahlias
There’s nothing more charming than a puff of colorful flowers blooming happily in a rustic and recycled container with loads of character. We love to rescue ordinary objects, anything that can hold dirt, and use them in our gardens. We feel that old artifacts are more valuable with age!
Just look at these 25 examples that you all have shared with us and see how the containers each accent the flowers contained within. So creative!
Penny Lee’s years old white porcelain pot with little Dahlias
Luz Morris Euphorbia milli in my front yard
Kim Decker
Kim Decker from Wisconsin, used her wheel barrow until the wheel fell off! She says, “Here is my old wheelbarrow with petunias. It’s filled in so well, I love the colors, it goes so well with the rust.
Penny Lee’s easy care graniteware,…and Violas
Rhonda Duchesneau’s ‘spilt milk’ from her blue painted milkcan
Olga Torres My funnel container
Nate Jordan’s ironwork planter with Creeping Jenny
Jeanne Sammons’s three-tiered mermaid garden
Jeanne Sammons said “This 3-tiered resin container garden held up for over 10 years out in my pool deck garden. You can see some cracks and fading here and there. It’s easy to make one of these tiered gardens … just punch out the drainage hole in each of the container bottoms and thread a piece of rebar. Then pound it into the ground …your 3-tiered container garden is ready to plant. My cast iron mermaid found a home here along with the Portulaca (moss rose), asparagus fern and ivy.”
Sue Langley’s terracotta and galvanized containers
Sue Langley Ornamental cabbage and powder-blue violas look well together, in terracotta and galvanized containers.
Sue Clifton “I have no extra change, but I do have extra Chicks”
Grace Peterson
Grace Peterson shows us one of her garden vignettes….sure to be one of our favorites. “Classic FMG”,…mixing vintage items and containers with flowers and succulents.
Donna Wheeler’s porcelain bucket
Donna Wheeler “Here’s my old porcelain bucket with holes it makes the best. We have something beautiful in it every year!”
Jean Morrow
Sun or shade, it pays to move your containers around…
Jean Morrow says, “I had these flowers in the front of my house, where there is quite a bit of shade. Moved them to where they would get lots of morning sun. I think they have done quite well since then. The bi-colored lavender/purple flowers on the right are Verbena ‘Lanai Twister Purple.’”
Myra Glandon
Debbie Kinsley Schefer I use mine for a herb garden
Chantelle Petitpas “Last summer I planted this grapebox and set it on my bedframe bench/”
Cindy Barton’s upcycled roof vent planter
If you EVER find an old vent like this at a yard sale or anywhere, please save it to do this. These vents have screening on the back side, since they are made to keep animals out and let fresh air into buildings.
Cindy Barton saved this old vent and because it’s backed with a screen, she could fill it with soil and succulents. Once the plants take hold you can lean or hang it up vertically for this splendid result!
Constance Ann McAlpin Lantana in an old field tile
Dandi Gentry My galvanized chicken feeder
Bobbie Lynn
Bobbie Lynn loves old stuff that you wouldn’t think to use in the garden. This year I am planting up an old bundt ring cake pan and a vintage colander. I will post pics when I’m finished. Can’t wait to start but it’s still cold. This is a pic I posted before of my galvanized. Each year I plant them up with something different.
Arleen Harbin’s pitchfork planted with succulents
Arleen Harbin “I attached green plastic poultry fencing with floral wire in the back. I then added a cut piece of cocoa fiber to keep the soil in. Between the fencing and cocoa fiber I attached the moss. All of the materials I had on hand for various other projects. I think it is a great use of worn or old tools!”
Tiffany Castleberry’s stacked bowls of flowers
Tiffany Castleberry I sawed off a piece of a spindle and attached it to two bowls. It’s actually more structurally sound than it looks, and I like how it gets a little wonky when the flowers are heavier on one side.
Arleen Harbin’s old pitcher with string of pearls
Sue Langley “I’d bet that every one of your gardens have at least one of these buckets or tubs”
Myra Glandon “I made a window box out of a copper boiler and a spot for a nest in an old strainer.”
Donna Wheeler’s hubby built the flower box and attached it to old iron headboard
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Thank you for sharing my photo. It was taken several years ago. I should get an updated one. You know how it is, nothing stays the same where gardening is concerned. :)
Cindy really was thinking outside the box when she planted in the roof vent. Great job girl!
I love all of these different containers . it will give me more to look for when i go garage selling or trash day, people throw this good stuff away.
These are wonderful! I recently made some hanging planters from old bicycle baskets & coffee sacks. I tried posting them here for you, but wasn't able to, sadly! Anyway, here's the Pinterest link for them, if you want to see how they turned out: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/522839837985923607/ I also used an old birdhouse that's missing part of it's roof, for another planter that turned out well: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/522839837985961890/. Thank you for all the inspirations & ideas! I hope that mine can also inspire someone else, too!