My Patio and Garden Salvage

When I moved in to this house, the small side yard in between the driveway and the house was a bare spot with a pecan tree. The following spring (about a year later), I embarked on a project to transform the area into a raised kitchen/herb garden and flower bed. Later, I added an attached patio.

 I did it all with old bricks and flat rocks from a chimney my husband tore down on the property. The fill dirt was from our property also. I recently had to dig up the patio because it had been overtaken with grass and weeds; so we laid landscaping fabric down underneath, replaced the brick and rock, and decided to cover it with small pea gravel. I am still working the pea gravel in, but it is looking much tidier.

 

 

 

 Rocks:  Free.
 Bricks: Free.
 Dirt for the raised garden: Free.
 Landscaping fabric: Maybe $10.00?
 7 tons of pea stone; some of which also went on the driveway: $50.00

 Something I am really getting into now: "Salvage" garden items. I am fascinated by items in people's gardens created from found, salvaged, junked old stuff. And I want to do it in my own gardens! Here is Some of what I've collected so far:

 
  I bought this at an antiques shop.

 
One cute thing to do is to stick old broken plates in potted flowers. This is an old plate I dug up in an old trash pile on our farm.


 This is an old bed frame I dug up from the dirt by an old cabin back in the woods on our farm.

 
 This  is a wrought iron bird bath I inherited from my Grandmother. I have no idea where she got it; probably a flea market or antique shop or some such place.The piece of glass in it is one I dug up and plan on using in a pot of flowers at some point.

 I plan on scrounging around in my barns and other places for more "junk" I can make into nifty garden sculpture or other decorative garden items!