Yard goods

[bixaorellana]

Well, really it should be yard "bads", as it's all about junk picked up in the yard. This particular yard is a cornucopia, not only for bits of toys lost through the years, but for the pickings afforded by the landlord's unsightly berm of construction trash. I present my very small-scale beautification efforts here, but I know there must be other gardeners out there with more imagination and breadth in recycling junk into yard ornaments. Let's see what you've got!

This recently cut-back plant is skimpy -- but who cares, as long as this intrepid guy is working away.

Heads up! Two rubberoid heads which seem familiar peer from the pots they now inhabit. A rusted disk with Bob Esponga on the drums sets off this plant nicely.


A spring has sprung in this sprawly succulent's pot.

                                           An erstwhile crushed plastic Christmas
                                           ornament is now a lovely miniature gazing ball.

Broken glass and lost marbles     catch the afternoon sun.

I always found this clay sun dinky and pedestrian. But once it was attached to this whateveritis I found in a field, it was greatly enhanced. It seems to belong in this loop of gas pipe to the hot water heater.
























Broken pieces of tiles do their bit to upgrade planters made from breeze block.

[Deleted]

Excellent! Nature will always have the upper and no matter what. Why isn't the clay sun out somewhere being embraced by vines?

[imec]

Oh, cool! I like it! Gives a whole new meaning to the term "junkyard".

[hwinpp]

So many details, nice one, Bixa!

[bixaorellana]

Kerouac, that little sun is only 3 inches across and one does feel ones boiler needs a little something.

Thanks, Imec. Does that make Ginger a junkyard dog, though?

Thank you, HW. I know as soon as you liberate the wall cactus, you'll be giving free rein to your creative impulses. I wanna see recycled Cambodian junk!

All the construction discards on the property are both a blessing and a curse. They provide fine pickings for my various little projects, but there's an awful lot of the stuff and some of it is in my line of sight or on my part of the property.

<--- Here's the bed I built next to the porch entrance.

Okay, so it's not perfect, but it's a nice little welcoming touch, plus I was able to maintain and upgrade Ginger's path into the yard with some attractive terracotta tiles. And how many people can say their flower beds are edged with real marble?

Just past the driveway to my house, the land rises to an empty area with a bunch of small trees on it. I'm trying to establish succulents on that rise.

There is a ton of gritty old cement at the end of the drive, plus there were lots of heavy hunks of the stuff. Instead of painstakingly hauling them away, I used them to make a sort of retaining wall for a clump of bamboo. I am hoping that with time the concrete will darken and maybe even grow lichen, thus appearing more natural.







Well, I can't be the only person who uses found objects in the yard. I know there are people out there turning bizarre discards into attractive birdbaths and recycling all kinds of things into useful or ornamental additions to the yard. Let's see them!

[bixaorellana]

I found treasure yesterday amidst the yard junk! As mentioned above, there are bunches of concrete pieces around, particularly over by the giant wall of the neighbor's house. That's where my compost heap is. I was adding to it yesterday evening when I saw yet another hunk of concrete, which I picked up to pitch over into the construction berm. Luckily, I glanced at it before tossing -- it's a geode! I've never found one before, and can only assume this one came to light after the hard rain of the previous night. I looked around for the other half, but couldn't find it.

It's much prettier and more sparkly than I was able to capture in a photograph. This is about the size of glass paperweight. You can see why I thought it was just another chunk of cement.

                   

[Deleted]

Jeez, I must have been on sabbatical when this OP first appeared. I have no earthly recollection of and I know I would have been posting in here...
Anyway,I shall return for certain,I have so much stuff to post (have to photo first).
I remain flummoxed though.
Thank you Bixa.
I recently inherited a bunch of stuff from my friend who recently passed,had to put the brakes on acquiring too much. God,she had some stuff.( like I don't :

[gertie]

That is just lovely, bixa, and congrats on finding the geode. I'm still debating on using the brick I have for surrounding my beds. Unfortunately, it's nothing so pretty as your marble bed surround. In stead, they are gritty fireproof chimney bricks, blackened on one side from their years as a chimney and a dull, sickly pinky red. I had thought of painting them based on a suggestion in the garden aspirations thread, but seeing your clever use of found items, perhaps I will just use them after all. I did get quite a look from husband when I suggested painting them!

[bixaorellana]

It's a pleasure to report that after all the rain we've had and the time that's passed since September, the concrete chunks around the bamboo now look quite natural.

Hey! Where are everyone elses pictures of "re-purposing" junk into yard beauty?

I am so thrilled that I finally got all the accumulated pictures off my camera and can now show the second (2nd!) geode that I found. This one was found very close to where the first one was, but it's not the other half. Where do they come from?!

[Deleted]

Very cool Bixa. I keep forgetting to take some pics of my stuff. If the rain ever lets up, I will do today,I promise. Got a bunch of new stuff over the weekend from my friend's garden who passed away in January. You would have had a field day!!! I did show some restraint,but,not much.

[bixaorellana]

This is not really a picture of yard goods, but I guess having these benevolent creatures in our home grounds makes for good yards.

Also, I like this thread & would like to see it get some action.

It's very arid here, but I always have basins of water around in the front patio for watering, plus a birdbath low to the ground. Guess that's why the toads & frogs have made themselves at home.
These pics are all of the same little guy, who was hanging out on a bucket rim last night, but jumped onto the towel hanging off the cistern faucet.

[mickthecactus]

Good thread Bixa.

[cheerypeabrain]

This is an old pic, since I was a child I have picked up the odd sea washed brick whenever I visit the seaside...nowadays one needs permission and I wouldn't take more than one or two. Anyway...I gradually accumulated a lot of these old bricks...washed smooth into pebbles by the sea. Here they are in 2005...on a table that my OH rescued from a skip...



As we had so many (and wanted to use the table in the summer) I made this little mosaic with some old marbles that my sons gave me when they grew out of them.

[Kimby]

Lovely, cheery. Am I correct that you are using it as a doormat or threshold? What a great idea.

[bixaorellana]

What Kimby said, & the same question, please.

So that lovely table is also a found object, thus technically a bad that turned into a good? It's really handsome. What about the white planter on the left in the first picture -- is it a re-purposed old sink? Oh yeah, and the open-work stand beyond the picnic table -- made from found objects?

[bixaorellana]

It's been a while since anyone has shown any trash they've transformed into treasures. And I've been frustrated lately with no good finds to work with. However, I scored today!




It must be said, that no matter how much one deplores the consumerism of the US and other similarly developed countries, said consumerism makes for more neat stuff being thrown away, to the joy of us scavengers. There is not nearly so much good junk to be found here in Oaxaca.




Anyway, I was walking near my house this afternoon and spied an object that appeared to be thrown-out and which begged to be re-purposed. It was in front of the house of a friend of mine who happily gave it to me, saying they'd put it out as garbage. It had been in their patio where some construction is going on, so was splashed with cement.



A dry scrubby took care of the worst of the cement, so now to upgrade it a bit. I'm actually glad it's pink, as my other plant hanger is also pink. It's a swing set frame, set in concrete, so can't be moved.

Here we are, ready to go. I even have an old hook that can be added to this project.

I just want to more or less powder it with the paint. The leaves and flowers serve as stencils to allow some of the pink to remain, plus to give a shadowed effect. I am using navy blue because that's the color I happen to have.

          

I like the effect!


It's all done, and some of you may be thinking that it still looks like crap. Be of good cheer, as it will all come right in the end.
                                

Set up against the blank wall of the house and with plants placed on it, it ain't too shabby!

[bjd]

You guys are all so creative!

[cheerypeabrain]

That's brilliant Bixa, what a clever girl you are! ingenious


I must have a hunt around the garden as I'm sure we have more transformed stuff...

incidentally, yes...the semi-circular mosaic thingy (post #12) is being used a as a sort of threshold to the conservatory...it's now covered in moss and quite grubby but looks better for it I think.

[Deleted]

I have a question. Are garden gnomes common in all of our countries? Of course, anybody who saw the film Amélie knows that we have them in France. But of course when I think of Florida, I always think of plastic flamingos rather than gnomes.

[cheerypeabrain]

They used to be quite common in the UK, but are a less so nowadays....if I came across a really spectacularly gorgeous one I'd have one in my garden. I saw some in shop windows a couple of years ago...they were being used to promote firetrap clothing...I REALLY wanted one but they're frightfully expensive.

www.flickr.com/photos/deadlythegnome/

[bixaorellana]

Thanks for the compliment, Cheery, but I wanna see more of your stuff. I haven't taken found objects to the level you have.

Yeah, gnomes in the US, too, but usually seen in the yards of people who just can't stop. My mother made me drive her round and round and round a cul-de-sac once, because she couldn't stop laughing at a yard that had all seven dwarfs, Snow White, plaster ducks, cement deer, etc. etc. all in an extravagance of misproportion.

I knew a woman once whose parents sold that kind of statuary -- lawn jockeys and the like. She said her mother was the one who painted them. She did them in conventional style for years, then finally got tired of that and just started putting anything that occurred to her on them -- stenciled numbers, for instance.

Doing something like that would definitely bring them more into the spirit of this thread.

[bixaorellana]

Come on, gang -- I know you all have nooks & crannies in your gardens just filled with clever repurposing, upscaled junk, doo-dadding, etc.!

Here's about as basic as you can get -- I put it in an avocado shell, & there it's keeping very well ;D.

I've dried the empty shells in the freezer or just left them out. The end result appears to be the same. I just love the primitive dragon egg aspect of these little pots. Also, it's a way to use all those scraps of rampant succulents that always seem to be around. (which is why the examples shown are so battered )

[bixaorellana]

Not my idea -- I just wish it were!
Boy, did the light bulb go on over my head when I saw this:

           <-- click for more info

[tod2]

That is a brilliant idea Bixa! How many of us have bought a shoe storer only to find it really doesn't do the job quite right (shoes too big or too many shoes ;D) Now, that is one good idea instead of throwing the darn thing away!

[cheerypeabrain]

Apr 29, 2011 15:40:27 GMT bixaorellana said:

So that lovely table is also a found object, thus technically a bad that turned into a good? It's really handsome. What about the white planter on the left in the first picture -- is it a re-purposed old sink? Oh yeah, and the open-work stand beyond the picnic table -- made from found objects?

Just found this (what have I been doing for the past year!?)

The white planter is an old Belfast sink my BiL gave me, the open work stand is just some spare bricks arranged in an attractive fashion ;D

The picnic table is looooong gone now....got a few more things I can post but I'm having trouble getting onto photobucket atm. A job for another day ;D

[Kimby]

Jul 5, 2010 5:09:23 GMT bixaorellana said:

I am so thrilled that I finally got all the accumulated pictures off my camera and can now show the second (2nd!) geode that I found. This one was found very close to where the first one was, but it's not the other half. Where do they come from?!

I'm guessing they were previously "owned" and tossed out by the former owner. I wouldn't expect them to just crop up in the middle of a settled area...