Organized Clutter

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!

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 ...

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...

This old stepladder has a new location this season! It has been in my front yard border for many years. See what's in the border this year to take it's place.

I've started planting my flower gardens and pots!   First up, is the small flower bed next to the driveway.    I am always a fan of vertical interest in flower beds, so this year I took the old stepladder out of the larger flower border in the front yard.  

Last Christmas season, I purchased a 6 pack of 2" to 2 1/2" unfinished wood slice ornaments at Hobby Lobby.  They were $2.99 or $3.99.  I didn't make tree ornaments with them but I got an idea to create plant markers instead.

I am not very techie! I don't like learning new technology but with writing a blog and even using a smart phone, one does pick it up. One of my daughters taught me an Iphone skill over the weekend, and I'm really excited about it.  Above, is one of my garden photos of a bucket of zinnias and lantana on a rustic stool.  Scroll on down and see the photo after the new Iphone skill.

On November 19th, I purchased my very first waxed Amaryllis bulb at a Littlefork Craft Fair for $25. The vendor had several waxed bulbs displayed in various vintage containers.  Mine was in a wooden salad bowl with Princess Pine tucked in around the edges.

  One of the very last places I plant and decorate in the yard is in the back. Very few people see this spot. The junk here didn't make the cut to be included in the front or side yard by the deck.   I started arranging this stuff along with an inexpensive double impatiens basket, a six pack of single violet impatiens and a calliope medium violet geranium.  The stuff included a soda crate, a galvanized bucket, a peeling wooden toolbox, a minnow bucket insert, a screen door, a wooden flower, a rusty shovel.

I have managed to evade Covid until last week.  It started with a sore throat and progressed to a cold, along with fatigue.  Just starting to perk up. The deck landscaping photo above is from this season.  One of my variegated sedums is in bloom on the right.  A few dianthus and carnations are also blooming, but the sweet alyssums are not blooming. I think insects or slugs must be eating them.

The weather here in northern Minnesota has been cool, and a little wet, but these three  Supertunia Picasso in Purple petunia  plants in the laundry tub are doing great.  The   Lemon Slice Superbell Calibrachoa  in the watering can is too. See my front yard border planting photos over Memorial weekend and current early July photos below.

Earlier this year, I found this rustic metal "Sweet Home Minnesota" sign at Goodwill. I'm sure it was homemade! I thought it was perfect for my junk garden vignettes. See my current plantings and junk decor on the front corner of my house below, along with previous blog photos of this same area from years past.

Today I'm sharing more of my current and past junk garden plantings. This area is just past my deck, towards the back of the house.  Maybe you remember this area that got a makeover just last year   HERE.