Robert Hayes
One of my favorites things to do in my gardens is putting together little vignettes of junk I’ve picked up at garage sales, thrift stores, estate sales or flea markets and incorporating them into different areas of my garden. This post is filled with lots of pictures of some of these little garden decor groupings I’ve put together over the years. I hope you’ll come away with some ideas of ways to add a few vignettes using flea market finds, upcycled or repurposed junk in your flower gardens.
A great example is this chair hubby made out of sticks and limbs from a maple tree we cut down. I parked a wicker basket of annuals on the seat and twined a Nelly Moser clematis around the back. I simply place a container inside it that has enough of a lip at the top so it doesn’t slip down into the milk can.
Vintage ladders make such fun vignettes in the garden. Just to show how garden vignettes can be changed up from year-to-year, here’s another cute ladder idea. I love using wicker baskets as planters and you’ll notice them in lots of my garden vignettes. Wicker baskets generally only last a few seasons outdoors, but I always feel like I got my money’s worth. Here’s a little vignette from a few years ago featuring antique mason jars which are also readily available at flea markets. Another cool piece made from barn wood is this sweet cart I picked up at a flea market.
Old Vintage Wheelbarrows make awesome flower planters in the garden. For some reason this wheelbarrow seems to always end up in the shade and filled with shady annuals, like impatiens, begonias, caladium, ferns and creeping jenny or vinca vine. Here’s another cute garden vignette featuring my old vintage wheelbarrow. This old chair was missing the seat, so I was able to snag it for a few bucks at an antique store several years ago.
I didn’t care if it had a seat, because I knew immediately that only a pot of flowers was ever going to sit on it. Here is the same old chair styled with a wicker basket filled with morning glory vine, zinnias, calibrachoa, lobelia and creeping jenny.
A galvanized pot with creeping jenny, lobelia, impatiens and caladium is looking lovely sitting on this old, junkie looking chair. It was in pretty awful shape, but we used a wire brush to clean it, and then spray painted it.
The updated water pump still has a cool chippy old look and it adds some character to this whiskey barrel planter. Spray paint is an awesome way to spruce up or change the look of your flea market finds. Hubby made the bench several years ago and it’s now showing age which I love. Some day this old shed will become one of my makeover projects, which will be fun because I’ve always wanted a “she-shed”.
Here is a list of items you can easily find at flea markets, estate sales, thrift stores and garage sales to upcycle and add to your gardens: I’ve been inspired over the years by following the blog, Organized Clutter.
If you hover in the upper left-hand corner of the picture, you’ll see the little Pinterest icon.
