The Tale of a Junk Garden .. part 2

    I can't believe that I'm writing two blogs in one week after a 4 month sabatical, but it's true.  I'm really tuned into my Garden Junk theme, so I thought I'd show you how I Winterize our plants .. Junk style.

     We have the good fortune to have a built-in atrium to keep our plants cozy (and alive) all Winter long.  Our home is built in a U shape with a garden area in the U. We have a fiberglass roof to filter in the sun and during the Winter we put up a rather ugly but useful wall across the part of the atrium that is exposed.   With so many plants crammed in to weather the cold, it looks like a tropical jungle with plants, on the ground, on raised objects (i.e. garden junk) and hanging from the low rafters.  The picture above is one portion of it.

  I've added chippy statues like that angel to keep "watch" over my plants.

  I put an old child's rocker to use, holding a blooming bougainvillea, while a rusty sifter houses some succulents.

  my favorite rusty, chippy birdcage doesn't house any birds but looks beautiful among the old ferns.

   I've used old urn shaped lamps for accents and chicken feeders and hibachi grills for succulent planters.

      A groovy midcentury swag lamp doesn't work but blends well with all the hanging plants.

  Another view of the swag lamp shows off our ferns and the old fountain that houses more junk style succulents.

   A dusty old water jug and a plaster cornucopia accompany more plants.

    A rusty child's metal chair holds a repurposed plastic shell salad bowl which now houses assorted succulents.

     With the help of this atrium, we've managed to keep annuals like potato vines and impatients and coleus alive for several years.

    I even let some of my succulents "put on the Ritz" as I married them with vintage silverplate dishes.

      With the warm weather we've had this past week, it's tempting to put my plants outside, but old man Winter came back last night with freezing temps so I'm so grateful to have this atrium to keep my plants alive and thriving.

 Happy Gardening (whenever!)

Betsy

How does your Garden Grow? Mine's with Junk!

     One of my favorite magazines just came to my local Walmart (and of course, I HAD to buy it), so this prompted me to end the seige of no blogs and start the new year off with one of my favorite subjects.... Junk Gardening!
           When you're an antique/junker and you love gardening, it's hard not to mix the two.  My validation that I'm not totally off my crazy junking rocker is that I'm definitely not alone in my quest for mixing antique/vintage/rusty/found objects/junk with my flower beds and patios.  I also validate my obsession with the number of followers and pins from by Junk Style Gardens board on Pinterest and the many boards on that subject (here's a list just typing in the words junk garden of boards created about the subject).
         I'm also magazine obsessed with anything about garden related subjects to get ideas.(and these are just a FEW)

     I have longed for a cool garden/green house shed made with old materials.  I enlisted my guy, Willie, to make me my dream greenhouse out of old windows I'd been collecting, but sadly we left the windows outside and the weather has gotten the best of them so we're going to have to go searching for more windows.

  Many years ago, my dad build this little shed for mom to use for her gardening tools and the grand kids to use as a play house, but time and bad weather have taken their tole on it.

   Since my love of old and preserving it's beauty, still sees potential in this old shed,  I've suggested to my honey that maybe we could turn this into a shed/greenhouse combo.  Here's what I'd like it to become:

Here's the link for this  greenhouse shed.  Since, I doubt this is going to happen, I'll have to use my imagination to make it my own Junk style Shed!
       I know that once Spring rolls around, antiquer/junker shopper start looking for garden related junk for patios, homes and their actual gardens, so we at Sisters Treasures are prepared to meet that need.  I'm in the process of getting my license to sell plants so I can share my special love of succulents in particular with our shoppers.  I love to find unusal vintage items to plant my succulents in as well as to decorate my garden.  I'm into upcycling treasures into garden statues and bird baths and birdhouses.  Here's one project I'm working on:

 I'm combining a chippy plaster lamp base with the glass shade from a standing lamp that broke to make a cute birdbath.  I've taken several old lamps and made them into garden statues or ornaments and have sold them.

 I have a pair of these old paster lamps I converted in my garden.  The only downside is that the plaster cracks with age and exposure to the sun so I have to do some repairs on the mate to this one.
      I'll end this junk garden post with some of the junk items we have for sale this year:



Succulents in old tins



Succulents in chicken feeders



more succulents in kitchen tools like this rusty sifter



Screen doors have so much potential on a patio or in a garden... trellis?  potting bench backdrop?



birdcages and garden statues are always available with us.


  Here in Texas it's been in or near the 70s all week so it's hard not to start thinking of Spring, but if you're in the cold, cold North, perhaps this blog will be an imaginary escape of what's to come! 
  Thanks for reading,
   Betsy