It doesn't belong to me, but my neighbor has an old man's boot on her deck that is always filled with pretty flowers in the summer. I'd like to have one just like it. I think I'll keep my eye out for one!

The big yellow plastic dump truck my child played with as a toddler.

I also saw a picture posted on this site where someone planted flowers in the seat of an old wooden chair. The effect was charming and beautiful. Very rustic.

My old garden cart will be full of flowers this year. Now is all rusty but I am going to paint it yellow, add some soil and some petunias. The best about that is that I can move it to different locations.

I have an old orange and green seed spreader from Sears & Roebuck that sits in one of the corners of my house. The holes are too small for soil to escape but big enough to drain efficiently. I'm quite proud of it. Have also enjoyed seeing people place various potted flowers in a Radio Flyer Wagon. Rustic Charm.

My cousin has an old metal bed frame with perennials planted in it. It's her "flower bed" - get it? Makes me laugh just thinking about it. :)

I saw a picture in a gardening magazine - an old ladder was used for vines to climb over. I have now bought a sturdy wooden ladder (price was right). I have bought two kinds of vines to climb over. All I have to do put it all together. Joan

I have a tub out of a very old washing machine set on a car rim (wheel). It looks like an urn. I have it on my front porch and plant it with annuals every year. Have got lots of compliments on it.

A rusty old bucket with a handle.........I lined it with several layers of heavy duty aluminum foil, poked holes in the bottom of it & plant petunias & blue daze in it. The petunias trail over the side of it.

My 2 wash tubs are my favorites. My friend is sending me her hubbies beat up work boots. And the kids just brought me home a little red wagon tonight! Can't wait to fill that up!
Lin

I have an old rectangle shape small trash can that I have half way buried (like it was dumped over) and I have violas, petunias , geranium an d mexican heather.Planted in a way that they look like that they are flowing out of it

Is everyone so different really . Some of you had some great ideas back on page '8'maybe some snob moved in and took over or you just lost your orginal direction dig deep may still be able to find a little human escence ,get in touch with your inner self, relearn what you did know,try to regain the artist in your selves .When you become able to create again youll become less of a critic or critical of others-just trying to help you see how to find enjoyment in the simple joys of life.You do it your way but please live and let live and dont try to ruin a great thing for others.

Everyone cruises our neighborhood the night before the clean-up just to see what's out there - well, I found in almost mint condition a 1930's square wash tub on the stand (original '30's green paint) and with drain hose still attached. For the past few years it has been filled to overflowing with petunias. And in the thrift store I found a red metal tool carrier about 8" x 24" for $1 - also filled with petunias. It is newer from one of the box hardware stores. It is almost rusted out - may be one more summer. Piegirl

Beautiful,wonderful-I can only imagine how georgous they will be after you do your thing and plant them up real purrty please put them some where we can see them if ever we do get the chance to drive by.Dont hide them away in some dark back yard corner make a statement to the world''Im not just another SHEEPLY-Im a person and Ido it my own way.Oh YES AFTER THEIR ALL PURRTFIED PLEASE POST PICTURES

Again what I meant to say was :''I am not another sheepal or may be sheepel-one who closely follows the pattern layed down by ''THE BUROGCY or THE POWERS THAT BE""dictate. Dont take me wrong I am a loyal true blue American but Im also just me

An old tree stump with hens and chicks inside!

My big stone urn planter which is 4 feet wide. I will post a pic on garden junk because I can't figure out how to put in optional link URL> Everytime I type in url it says error rejected...I so rejected here......LOL Great comments Nancy!!!You rock girl!!

A gigantic black rusty cast iron pot, everything and anything grows great in it. Dee

Big old coal scuttle.

For a long time I had intended to make a planter out of the broken transmission block from my caravan. Somewhere along the line though, one of my kids did away with it. I guess they didn't find the humor in it like I did. Then again, the post mentioned favorite planter found for free. That one was about $1,600.00. Maybe it's a good thing they did get rid of it!

Almost free (from flea market) : huge copper hand-crafted umbrella holders, rather old (1950s?) German blue hand-painted ceramic jars, one semi-circular trash can with s few series of holes in it. Giving up on the small containers, keeping a look-out for big stunners..

btw i'd love to drill holes at the bottom of those ceramic jars and plant directly in them, but i dont dare for fear they'll crack and break. Anyone has tips on how i can drill them without cracking them?

SunHat, I've drilled holes in ceramic pots before. Use a drill with a tile or ceramic bit and don't press too hard. Let the drill do the work. Terra cotta will drill quite nicely also, especially when it's been soaked.

Holly

Lets not forget those old kitchen colanders....already equiped with holes. Especially the copper ones.

I planted a hydrangea in a #6 crock when I moved. It looked fabulous for awhile til it rained and filled up with water. Didn't have time to drill the holes and was potting up every container I could to move plants. I love it for a planter. Would it take away from the antique value too much to drill the holes or is there another way of using it to plant something big in and still have drainage without drilling it?

Susie

Under the back porch is a 'hidden' room. And in this room I found an old coal bucket used for fueling an old coal furnace. Perfect for a container of annuals this summer. It probably won't make it much more than a year or two.

An old teapot a friend of my mother gave me. She (mistakenly) thought I collected tea kettles, and I didn't have the heart to set her straight. It looks lovely with nasturtiums in it!

Fun thread, and I have another perfect offering. Last summer my husband, at my request, dug up an old rusted iron tube surrounding the valves of a buried gas tank, then, instead of carting this 70-pound monster away left it lying. "I'm going to" has been his answer all these months. Then exactly when he finally reluctantly agreed to get to it--about three weeks ago--I had an epiphany--would Martha Stewart throw this away? Almost 3' tall, totally rusted, twisted and bent with welds torn apart and holes eaten through? Actually, I have a feeling she might, but I'm going to fill it with soil, plant it, and make it the scupture at the center of my herb garden. Or something. A totally personal vision that makes my husband wish he'd gotten rid of it while he could, but it's going to be fun presiding over its transformation into "art."

I have old boots planted and when my boss told me she was taking a pair of her husand's old worn out boots to the thrift store, I said, "Boots??? I can plant boots!" Her husband nearly died, but she gave them to me and they are planted with ivy geraniums and look great!

My daughter lives outside Nashville and her DH hauled home an old abandoned water trough that had holes in the bottom. We put stones in the bottom for ballast and put it out by the barn. It looks great planted with petunias, etc.

I can't decide!
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This isn't mine, but my aunt's: She has an entire bathroom, tub, toliet, and freestanding sink in the middle of a woodland area. I haven't been up there in years so don't know what she has in it now. But it was always full of green! Very cute.

a clean, white, undamaged wicker baby basinette. I have bulbs planted in it. basically just a large oval white basket on legs. found it abandoned in a parking lot. at HD in fact!!

I have 2 of the fiberglass laundry tubs. One is used as a planter/table. The other one has lead a different life-I made a 2x4 bottom with wheels(took the long legs off first), and used it to hold the weight set that boys/men seem to buy and never use-and the weights are always in the way. He moved out, took the weights but not the tub, almost threw it out! Now I will set the tub in the ground to the rim as a small pond, with 2 bird baths stacked above it, and then have a gallon milk jug in the tree to slowly drip down and have a mini cascade for the birds. Hope you understand how this is going to work. Worse that can happen, I pull it out next years and fill it back in with soil.

In my neighborhood, all the houses were built with little brick flower boxes somewhere near the front of the house. Mine is now my herb garden but it has been about five different gardens in six years.. will be a different one once the annual herbs run out. I am thinking a miniature "park"... or maybe it is time for a full-time cactus garden... or some more flowers..

This is hilarious reading!

My Mom just gave me an old ceramic bucket that used to be her grandmother's. The bottom is rusted away, so I set a potted plant in it.

I also have 2 wooden trellis' from someone's trash pile. I haven't had a chance to use them yet, but I like them.

SunHat,
Put tape over where you want the holes to be before you drill so the pieces don't go flying around. I've drilled holes in clay pots before, and it helps.

By the side of the road on garbage day I found an rusty old round rim "thing" with a rusted out bottom but intact sides, about 2.5 feet in diameter. I filled it with gravel and soil and planted Sempervivum and Lewisia in it and also in five upright hexagonal clay pipes I got for free from a relative.

Wendy

I found one of those copper three tiered wire mesh fruit
baskets, lined it with moss, and planted it with succulents
and a christmas cacti. It's hanging in my grapefruit
tree with some wire bird cages that I planted in the same
manner. Very cute. Sorry, don't have a digital camera(yet)
boomchuckchuck

When we bought our home and property, it came with 2 old beds from pick up trucks and an old nissan truck without the hood and engine. I've planted asparagus in the 2 beds which is great because the gophers don't get it, and change the vegetables in the full truck every year. In the cab of the truck I grew cherry tomatoes in an earth box last year. It's like a little green house in there. The plant needs trimming but most of it is still alive. I'm going to trim and feed it and see how early I can get tomatoes from it.