Organized Clutter

I've run across a lot of these two or three tiered metal trays on Pinterest, Facebook, other blogs, stores, and even Goodwill. They were/are pretty popular in farmhouse style decorating. Many people on Pinterest have amassed "smalls" for each holiday, and change out the tiered tray every few months. Today is the July Thrift Store Decor Team's Party and my tiered tray receives a small makeover.  Scroll on down to see my tiered tray along with my blogging pals projects.

I have a new, easy project today that started with this vintage aluminum basin or dish pan.  I found it at the consignment store for $6. It was dinged up perfectly for a planter! Also today is the June Thrift Store Decor Team's monthly blog party! Be sure and scroll to the bottom to see six more fun thrifted makeovers.

About 10 years ago, I found this old black metal lunchbox at a garage sale. My grandpa carried one of these to his job at the paper mill.  My dad worked there also but his lunchbox was hard plastic. I found this old lunchbox in my shed the other day and got an idea for a makeover.  Scroll on down to see it's new upcycle along with my Thrift Store Decor Team's April projects too!

My very first blog junk garden posts were shared in 2012. While I still love flower gardening, new ideas are fewer and farther between than in the early years. Here are some of my favorite repurposed junk garden project ideas!

Below is a compilation of some unusual junk garden planters that have appeared on my blog from my own yard and gardens, and three of my friends' gardens. I think you will enjoy all the rusty, junky goodness paired with flowers!

Do you have any whiskey barrel planters?  I currently have two round ones and one horizontal one.  Oak barrel planters weather into an awesome grey patina that is perfect for a junk garden.  Over the years, I have filled my barrel planters with a variety of annuals. I like to layer some plastic milk or water bottles on the bottom of barrels.  This saves on the amount of potting soil needed to fill the containers. The barrels also have drainage holes.  I always empty the soil into a wheelbarrow first if I move a barrel planter to another location. (But sometimes the barrel bottom has rotted out so the barrel stays put!) Above, my horizontal planter is filled with impatiens, asparagus ferns and filler vines.  Several years ago, I decorated the barrel front with an aluminum cover. It's nailed on.

I pick up inexpensive enamelware at garage sales and thrift shops all the time.  I find most of my enamelware for $5 to $10, sometimes less. Some are reproduction enamelware.  Pieces in excellent condition will not get drainage holes, but instead, become inside pieces.  Buying ceramic or terracotta flowerpots would be more expensive and would pose a winter storage hassle.  Enamelware works great for both indoor and outdoor planters, holiday decor, and farmhouse kitchens.

As winter winds down, it's time to think about flower gardening! Do you have enough galvanized buckets for planting?  Galvanized buckets are my favorite rustic outdoor planter.

I have a garden project featured in the Spring 2024 Country Sampler Magazine. Country Sampler magazine has had a makeover from its all primitive country format, and it also features upcycling projects from many DIY bloggers. It's worth a read! Here is my photo featured in the magazine. The coffeepot planters on stakes idea is from my blog post from May 23, 2016.  I have planted annuals in old coffee pots for years now.  But, last week, I got the crazy idea to add wood stakes to the bottom of three old coffee pots.     I purchased a 6 pack of rough wood garden stakes at Menard's for $5.00.  I made the stakes three different lengths, allowing for part of the stake to be in the dirt.  I attached the stakes through the bottom of the coffee pots with a washer and a screw.  I then thought the wood looked a little too new and applied some vinegar and steel wool stain.  (The recipe is all over Pinterest). The bottom of this length-wise half barrel was pla...

Deer seldom bother nicotiana annual plants but this year was an exception.  For several weeks (even with spray repellent), deer ate the blossoms off of the nicotiana. They were sad little plants.  But then, when the deer stopped eating them, they came in fuller and beautiful than usual.  It was like they were pruned. Here is Part 2 of the 2023 Junk Garden Tour, the Closeups!

Welcome to Part One of my 2023 Junk Garden Tour! This year I divided the tour into wider angle photos (part one) and the close ups (part two).  I hope you enjoy the tour!

Do you know what my all time most popular garden post is?  It's  Junk Garden Ideas Galore 2014 . The post had 22 photos of older garden junk ideas, like the one above.   Scroll on down this new post with some of my best junk garden ideas since then!

On June 6, I shared this laundry tub planter in a blog post  HERE. Scroll on down to see the laundry tub in July, along with the other planters on the patio.

Back in May, I shared four different planters with succulents, including three mop buckets, on my deck. You can look back at the old blog post for plant information  HERE.

My neighbor informed me that there was a free vintage garden cart and also a free spreader  on the curb close to my house. I checked it out, and of course I snapped it up.   I grabbed a big nail and a hammer from the garage. And I pounded holes in the bottom of the cart for drainage. I then added plastic water bottles to the bottom of the cart. I won't need to add as much soil. Next, I added potting soil. I picked up two white plastic baskets of mixed impatiens at Menards now only $5.61 each. The impatiens should fill in the top of the cart nicely. I placed the vintage garden cart next to the house, With other rustic planters and garden junk. The small buckets on top of the tool box are planted with red seed geraniums.  The rusty folding chair holds a tea kettle with parsley, and the grain bin has a white calliope geranium and two red impatiens bedding plants. More views of the back side wall of my house. Further down the wall, I have a funnel, stuck in a cultivator, plan...

This summer season, I once again planted nicotiana in the larger tub in my old wheelbarrow.  I always try to pick the bedding four packs with mostly red blossoms.  This year, I centered the tub with a foliage plant called  Persian Shield .  I have never had one before. The small tub contains bright pink and purple trailing verbena, and a  Cleopatra dwarf grass in the King and Prince Tut family.  The Cleopatra grass is also a new plant for me.   Unfortunately, the deer have pretty much cleaned off all of the verbena blossoms.    And they have eaten all the blooms off the nicotiana as well. This is so maddening! In the past deer very seldom bothered nicotiana, or verbena either for that matter.   I have been spraying the deer's favorite targets, like lilies, begonias, impatiens and hostas, but not the nicotiana or verbena.   Even with  Liquid Fence  spray almost daily, alternating with  Deer Stopper ...

I love picking up old farm tools at thrift shops and garage sales.  This is a vintage potato planter. I hoped that I could make it into a fun flower pot for my junk garden!  Scroll on down to see the process and completed project, along with 8 other projects from my blogging friends with the Thrift Store Decor Team.

Today I'm sharing a the junk decor and container plantings on my deck corners in 2023. Starting with this old red chippy gate and my  barn quilt project  from 2019.

Laundry tubs are just the best for planters, especially when they have a base to get them up off the ground for vertical interest.   This year the tub is planted with three  Kong Coleus plants  and two  Golden Creeping Jenny.   These plants continue with my theme from the large Mother's Day planter from my son and family, with coleus and lime green. This is the beautiful Mother's Day basket hanging on a homemade clothes rack.  (I didn't make it. I found it at an antique/consignment shop).  It works great for hanging plants. On top of the zinc covered patio table, repurposed as a potting bench, is a bucket planter with two  Calliope Geraniums in Magenta , along with a  Flamethrower Coleus Limelight. The magenta color didn't exactly match the Mother's Day plant but they can't all be the same! My barn door planter project was planted with two  Lanai Neon Rose Verbenas.   Trailing verbena grow about the best in the shallow plante...