More and more gardeners are using sculpture in their gardens as another level of interest. Many of us do not have the money to buy real sculpture or don’t like the same cement items that are made in hundreds of reproductions that we can afford. So many people are getting very creative, turning their “junque” into interesting sculpture.
I once went on one of those private garden tours where one lady bought lots of flea market items that she transformed into plant holders or sculpture. She hung bed pans – you read correctly, they were discarded hospital bed pans – on her wood fence and filled the deeper lip with succulents. This display made everyone laugh as they passed by.
One of the things she did that I copied was to use old useless ladders as places for vines to climb. Serendipitously, when I returned from the garden tour, my neighbor was trashing his free-standing ladder. I ran over to ask if I could have the broken ladder before the trash-man took it because I was planting a red honeysuckle – Lonicera Major Wheeler. The two were perfect for each other. That ladder has gotten more compliments and more people have told me they were going home to copy this idea.
I am now looking for someone’s discarded full length mirror to hang in my garden. A mirror adds such depth to the garden- I have seen it used effectively in three small gardens. I will have to start going to garage sales in the hopes of finding such a mirror. (see here)
I came across some other creative ways to recycle old unused furniture in your garden- old furniture that you might otherwise discard. (see here)