Garden Decor (Lots of Creative Ideas for Your Garden)

Once the perennials are coming up (maybe you’ve rearranged a few) and added in some annuals to your flower bed, it’s time to add some personality and character to your garden! One of my favorite parts of gardening is putting the finishing touches on my flower gardens by adding some Garden Decor and Garden Art! My favorite garden decor pieces are reinvented junk or vintage items that I upcycle or repurpose.

Using old repurposed items in garden décor, and home decor for that matter, is a trendy thing to do. Although lots of us old school gardeners could care less about what’s trendy, we just do what we like and have been doing it for years! If you’re new to gardening, I would just encourage you to experiment to find your style and just go with what you like and what suits you and not necessarily what is trendy.

This post includes lots of ideas you can take and use in your own gardens, plus some tips on putting together some vignettes and how to find vintage pieces or junk to upcycle into garden decor.

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Tips for Creating Garden Art Groupings

Garden Vignettes are little groupings of” junk” put together and nestled in among the flowers to add a bit of character to the garden. To create a vignette in your garden, simply pull together some of your decor pieces, arrange them, step back and take a look, and then rearrange your pieces until you’ve got it just right! Sometimes, I will simply leave a vignette for a few hours or even days to see if it grows on me.

Below is an upcycled barnwood bench that was picked up at a boutique. It’s such a versatile piece that could be and has been used by the owner in many different ways, either in her garden or on her porch! Barn wood is readily available now and if you have the tools and a bit of carpentry skill, this would be a fairly simple DIY project. We watched an old barn for some time and when the land was being sold, we contacted the owner to see if we could buy some of the barnwood. We got it for free! Score! The flowers in the planter are Torenia (Wishbone Plant).

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The Barnwood Bench is styled a little differently here.

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Below is another way the rustic barn wood bench was decorated. Also included in this grouping is an antique coal bucket used as a planter. The coal bucket planter has impatiens, new guinea impatiens, torenia and creeping jenny. An old broken rake was used to hang a cute garden sign on. There’s also an antique, galvanized watering can and a solar light to round out the grouping.

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Here’s a sweet little vignette! The plant shelf was picked up at an estate sale, the galvanized water can was from a garage sale and the little wood planter was a thrift store find.

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Creative Ways to Use Watering Cans in Your Gardens

Create instant character by using a short shepherd’s hook to hang teapots, little decorative watering cans or little pails. The little yellow watering can pictured below was purchased as a thrift store for a couple of bucks.

The perennials in this picture are Black-Eyed Susans and Zaegreb Coreopsis. The annuals include Gomphrena, Alyssum, Browallia (Blue Bells), Marigolds and Snapdragons.

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Recycled watering cans add tons of character to a garden! You can spruce up an old watering can or simply change the color with a can of spray paint. This watering can was a faded ugly green color and it was repainted this vibrant red! Any item you use as a planter needs holes. Just drill some!

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This little pink watering can got the same treatment.

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This is brilliant! The owner used an old watering can, but hung clear beads from the nozzle to simulate water!

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More Ideas for Adding Creative Decor to Your Gardens

As you’ve already seen in this post, shepherd’s hooks can be used for more than just hanging planters on and they come in more than one height. Use the tall ones anywhere you need to add some height in the garden. The shorter ones can be used in container gardens or really anywhere in the garden to add a touch of whimsy.

Here’s another little vignette idea featuring a galvanized pail filled with annual Lobelia hanging from a shepherd’s hook. The flowers between the frog and turtle are Torenia.

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Here’s a little vignette using a wicker basket that was picked up at a thrift store! An upturned pot has been pressed into service to act as a table of sorts, and is a great way to add interest and create height in a garden display. 

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Using Repurposed Vintage or Antique Items in the Gardens

Sometimes you can get great deals on old vintage milk cans from flea markets. Here’s one that was purchased at a flea market several years ago. This thing is really heavy and my sweet hubby, who indulges me with my addictions, or rather hobbies, carried it all the way to the car. We now take a wagon when we go to flea markets.

This old milk can was exceptionally ugly, thus the reason for it’s cheap price tag! It was sanded down and spray painted. I might change its color someday, but for now like the blue. Here it is with red Calibrochoa and Cardinal Climber Vine. The Clematis pictured is Blue Rhapsody. The other blooming perennials are Campanula (Wedding Bell) and Sun Drops.

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Here’s the upcycled milk can in a shady spot with a Fucshia planted in it. The giant Hosta may be Paradigm. Isn’t that a fabulous color? And it really looks gorgeous paired with the blue!

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Using an old chair and plopping a pot of flowers on it adds lots of creativity to your flower garden! If you’ve followed Gingham Gardens for any length of time, you’ve seen this old chair. It finds a place in one of my gardens every year. Since this picture, it’s gotten a paint job so it stands out better against the aged cedar fencing. The Hydrangea pictured is Twist and Shout. The galvanized planter on the chair is filled with Fuchsia, Vinca Vine and Asparagus Fern.

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Below is the same old chair a few years after receiving a paint job. I’m not sure how many more seasons it will last, but I sure have gotten my monies worth.

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What about adding an old ladder to your garden? A ladder is the perfect piece to add some height where you need it. It’s so fun to style this repurposed ladder every season. It came from an estate sale several years ago and has made many appearances in these gardens. 

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Another favorite is this old wheelbarrow from at an estate sale. If you have an old wheelbarrow you want to use as a planter, drill some holes in the bottom to allow for drainage and you’re ready to plant! Here’s an article I wrote for Hometalk that shows you exactly how to plant in your old wheelbarrow.

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Don’t you love old whiskey barrels? They make great planters and add so much character and texture to the garden. Unfortunately, although they last a long time, they will fall apart eventually. This repurposed whiskey barrel planter isn’t going to last too much longer, but it will continue to be used until it just falls apart. I’ve used it both dumped over like in the picture below and sitting up.

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In recent years, the old whiskey barrel is used upright to cover a tree stump. Isn’t it super cute? If you love using whiskey barrels in your gardens, be sure to check out this post.

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Using Natural Elements As Garden Decor

If you’re on a limited gardening budget, use things you can find in nature, like field stones or logs. We have been fortunate to find discarded rock from tumble down houses and were able to rescue them, (with the owners permission) before they were carried off to the dump. We used them to outline our flower beds. Old logs are also great finds! The variety of logs available will vary according to the tree type where you live. If it’s available, Birch is lovely, but we also often use cedar or oak.

This is a cute little shade vignette using some birch logs and rocks. The orange and white flowers are Impatiens and the Heuchera (Coral Bells) is Limelight.

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Here’s another neat “pinteresty” project. A hollowed out maple log used as a planter is really cool! And, another watering can hanging on a shepherd’s hook.

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It’s also fun to add a water feature to your gardens. I miss our little pond, but I don’t miss the work of cleaning it out in the spring.

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Where to Find Vintage Items to Upcycle as Garden Decor

Some great places to look for cool garden art and decor items are: estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores, and my favorite, flea markets. You can usually find the best prices at garage sales and flea markets. Also if you find something you really want at a flea market or garage sale, you can usually haggle to get the price down.

Look at this fabulous flea market! Can you pick out all the junk that you could use in your gardens? First of all the ladders made into an arbor would be so eye-catching with a clematis or other vine growing on them! See the vintage milk cans? What about the big old rusty pot looking thing to the left; think awesome planter! The egg basket hanging on ladder arbor would also make an adorable planter. What else do you see in this picture that you could use in your gardens?

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Below is another vendor at the same flea market. This picture just calls to me. I especially love the chippy, rustic picket fence panels. And look! There’s a rusty old wheelbarrow just waiting for a gardener to snatch it up!

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Vintage Pieces to Upcycle for Your Garden

Below is a list of my favorite vintage items to repurpose for garden decor. I draw the line at car parts and toilets and bathroom sinks, but to each their own. I have also used antique metal bed frames to make flower and herb beds! I have an entire board in Pinterest dedicated to Garden Décor and Junk. 

• Ladders
• Chairs
• Vintage Bicycles
• Wheelbarrows
• Galvanized milk pails
• Other galvanized farm buckets and containers
• Whiskey barrels
• Old wood windows
• Vintage milk cans
• Vintage mason jars
• Galvanized watering cans
• Old wicker baskets
• Tea pots
• Old picket fencing
• Vintage gates
• Water pumps
• Birdhouses
• Vintage wooden tool boxes
• Old terra cotta clay pots
• Antique legged bathtubs
• Antique metal bed frames

There’s a free printable list of these items and more available to subscribers in our Gardening Resources Library. It’s perfect to print off, highlight the items you’re looking for, and take along when you go to flea markets, thrift stores, garage sales, or estate sales to keep you focused.

If you like what you see here, I’d love to have you join me! And, I promise it will totally be worth your time, with more awesome gardening ideas coming once or twice or even three times a week. As an added bonus to subscribing, you’ll have access to our very useful Free Gardening Printables Resource Library.

Do you like to use junk or upcycled vintage items to decorate your gardens? What are some of your favorite garden decor or garden art pieces?

This article encompasses just a small fraction of the Garden Junk and Decor
articles on Gingham Gardens.
Here are some other Related Articles You’ll Enjoy:

Creative Garden Ideas
Garden Vignettes Using Flea Market Finds
Upcycled Vintage Garden Decor
Creative Flower Container Gardening
Shade Border Junk Gardens

Thanks for stopping by Gingham Gardens today. I hope you’re enjoying your visit and are coming up with some ideas for your own gardens! Feel free to hang around for a bit and check out some other gardening goodies.

Happy Gardening,
Julie

p.s. Go ahead and feel free to “pin” these pictures. If you hover in the upper left-hand corner of the picture, you’ll see the little Pinterest icon. Just click it and pin away.

p.p.s I’d love to have you follow me on Pinterest. Lots of great gardening ideas and tons of gardener’s eye candy.

Save these pins to your Gardening Board on Pinterest for future reference:

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