Find Planters in the Garbage

Somehow Matt and I have accumulated a decent collection of unique planters – most of which we found on garbage night. In the spirit of summer, below are images of our recycled planters. I hope this inspires some to find reusable containers for their own gardens.

Oil Can turned Planter

Matt found these soya bean oil cans on Seneca Ave – in front of a fried chicken joint. I read online that car wax prevents rusting on metals exposed to weather. I’m going to pick some up to prevent the containers from rusting further. Side note: Mixing graphics/typography amongst plants – awesome.

Chair Planter

Chair Planter

This planter I’m pretty proud of. I was parking the car (last spring) and spotted a broken chair. At the time, I wasn’t sure exactly what to do with it, but I recognized the coolness and carried the chair 4 long blocks back to my apartment and up the stairs. It’s steel and it’s not light. A week or two later, I was drinking and tanning on the deck when I realized one of my circular pots would fit right in. I jammed the plastic container in the seat of the chair for a snug fit. I painted both the chair and plastic pot white for cohesiveness. The “potty planter” is definitely a conversation piece.

Candelabra Turned Trellis

This is an indoor candelabra Matt found on the street, works really well as a trellis for our climbing hydrangea.

Pallet Planter - Ridgewood Queens

Probably most noteworthy and deserving of a post all to its own, are our pallet planters. For now I’ll brief you… I wanted larger planters on the RD but didn’t want to spend a fortune. Matt googled and found tutorials on how to create pallet planters. We found free pallets on craigslist. Matt and a bunch of his buddies spent a few days with a few 12 packs and built these glorious planters. The larger size buckets (about 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 ft) gave opportunity to expand the RD garden to include a fig tree, rose bushes, hydrangeas, and eggplants.

Pallet Planter - Ridgewood Queens

Matt found this wood in Williamsburg – a building demolition (lucky us!!). He asked the construction guys for scraps, they said to come back the next day. Matt did and picked up this fine cedar!!

Long story short… look closely on garbage night – you can find some really cool useful shit.