Garden Junk: Recycled Items Add Personality in your Garden

Savvy gardeners rarely throw anything away – rather they choose to reclaim, recycle, salvage and reuse vintage materials in new and inventive ways. That “junk” collecting in your attic and garage can be repurposed in your garden to add personality and give a sense of your family history.

There is something deeply satisfying in reclaiming an object and giving it a new life. After my father died, I was helping to clean out his garage and uncovered a treasure trove of old “stuff” salvaged from the farm where he grew up – pieces of iron fencing, rusted tools, vintage wheel barrows and watering cans, a Franklin stove, and a variety of galvanized pails – potential garden junk, that once belonged to my grandparents, to reimagine in my own garden!

Anything that can hold water can be a container in your garden. The rusted Franklin stove, that once heated a room in my grandparent’s farmhouse, became a planter filled with ferns in my shade garden, alongside an old wheel barrow, also planted with cheerful flowers. Aged (and very heavy) granite stones, used as steps to climb the side porch, were added as focal points in one of my garden beds. You can still see the indentation of all the feet that climbed those steps over decades! Vintage tools are hanging on my wooden fence. When I am out in the garden and see these items, they remind me of my family and my “place” in this world.

So, you inherited some pitted silverware from your aunt. If you aren’t using the pieces to dine, turn some of them into wind chimes in the garden.  Do you have a collection of dependable but worn-out hiking boots? Why not remember the miles of trails you traveled in these boots by cutting a drainage hole in the bottom, filling them with potting mix, and using them as planters for flowers? Old leather boots can last a season or two in the garden and make great conversation pieces. “I remember hiking to the top of Half Dome in these boots.”  You get the idea!

If you aren’t fortunate enough to have your own family junk to recycle in your garden, you can claim others’ cast-offs by scouting out garage sales, flea markets, salvage yards and antique stores. But I bet if you scrounged around and looked at your junk from a new perspective, you will find some real treasures that will add personality to your garden and reclaim a piece of your heritage.