Sad, broken-down items around the house do not necessarily need to be delivered to the landfill. They can live smashing new lifestyles when placed outdoors. While I am not a huge fan of a bathroom used as a planter, its classic sisters the pedestal sink and claw-foot tub can pull off glorious backyard placement. Intelligent gardeners never stop coming up with creative recycling, reclaiming and repurposing thoughts for the landscape. From boots to bottles and coffee tins to cattle troughs, gardens offer lots of possibilites. See if any of these thoughts are ideal for you, your junk and your yard.

mary phillips

Bottle trees. Commonly seen around the Southeastern United States, they had been presumed to catch bad spirits and keep them away from the house. The reason they’re so often seen with all-blue bottles is because blue is connected with warding off spirits (recall Haint Blue porch ceilings? They always offer fascinating conversations here on .)

Melissa Mascara Layout

Salvaged claw-foot tub. Plants and Fish today soak in this classic bathtub, composing a unique pond backyard.

Debbiedoo’s

A pallet and wellies. An old wood pallet sports a new coat of stain and flowers between its boards. Finishing off the vignette is a pair of boots. The plants are not edible, but would you eat a salad that was developed in a boot up? I am on the fence.

Contemporary Outdoor Fountains

Recycled glass. This gabion fountain provides a soothing trickle and daring color in the backyard.

Industrial electrical pump housings. I am not sure where one picks up these, but they definitely make for fascinating conversation out in the backyard. Another planter seen farther down is a classic noodle pot.

Unskinny Boppy

Salvaged ladder. Growing this ladder could be unwise, but it has rickety charm as a light fixture bedecked with mason jar hurricanes and a Moravian star.

Check out more applications for ladders

Colleen Brett

Tins. Rather than pitching that outdated pepper tin, then fill it with dirt and then start some seeds growing on a sunny windowsill. Once the plants are a couple of inches, you can transplant them to larger planters or to the floor out.

Melissa Mascara Layout

Coffee cans. Different levels of fading color make this weathered wall of metal coffee tins even more intriguing.

Exteriorscapes llc

Salvaged boards. An assortment of used boards bring vivid color to this backyard fence and seat. The jagged edge gives trees and shrubs a sculptural background.

Gardens from Gabriel, Inc..

Cattle feeder. These tin tubs could be too leaky to maintain water to farm animals anymore, but they maintain succulent minigardens very well.

Amazon

Garden Junk, by Mary Randolph Carter

Mary Randolph Carter is the godmother of this junk-in-the-garden movement. This book made me envision crusty items in brand new ways for the backyard way back in 1997, and I still pull it out and turn through it all of the time.

Inform us Are there any repurposed items working hard on your backyard? Tell us in the Remarks section. And if you’ve got a photo, we’d really like to see it!

More:
10 Imaginative Garden Suggestions
Sudden Edible Gardens
Gussy Up Your Backyard Shed

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