My garden needed an urn…
An urn full of flowers for the center raised bed.
I was hoping to find a tall urn.
Or even better, a tall urn with a matching pedestal.
The Garden Center where I work carries all kinds of beautiful cement urns and I have been drooling over them for weeks trying to decide which one to get. However, as much as I love the look of these cement urns, I could not quite adjust to the sticker shock I suffered from every time I checked out the price tag.
Still, I really loved them and I figured that the five or six salads I have managed to harvest from my garden over the course of the next forty years will at east add up to the price of half an urn.
Won’t I make the rest back in tomatoes and cucumbers?
Once again, I was faced with a purchase that I was unable to talk myself into. The only thing that I am really good at buying without being plagued by guilt are groceries, used books and plastic hair accessories.
Oh! And six plane tickets to Europe.
Someone explain please?
Fortunately for me, I was not forced to purchase an expensive urn for my garden. Instead, I drove past a neighbor’s house and noticed that he was having a garage sale. I stopped and found the perfect thing to use in place of an expensive cement urn. Something that captured the spirit of my farmhouse garden even better than a dumb old, beautiful urn.
Voila!
My country urn.
To fill my new/old urn up, I grabbed a few of my very favorite petunias from work.
Some tall spiky grass.
A sweet potato vine…
A trailing strawberry…
Yellow lantana…
Some millet…
Some dianthus…
Some bright red verbena…
Turns out that my country urn will hold a lot of plant material!
I tossed it all together adding a few perrenials and some more annuals at the base of the urn.
I also threw some zinnia and sunflower seeds in the dirt behind my country urn.
I think this urn will do just fine, though I do wonder what Beverley would think.
I love it. I’m not really a fan of the concrete urns. Yours is much prettier and fits the environment better.
Plus, this winter you can use it to hold cold beverages. :)
I don’t know about Beverly, but I like it. Great idea.
Awesome! I think it’s perfect! Who needs a stuffy old urn when a perfectly good washtub will do? More character I say!
I think it’s Fabulous and a perfect use of something that clearly needed a home!
Whenever I see your photos and I miss Kansas a little. I lived in Junction City from 1970-1972 and from 1979-1985. Went to K-State in Manhattan from 84-85 and loved Kansas. My dad was in the Army for 20 years and when we weren’t in Kansas, we were in Germany where I was born.
Any way… I love your photos and your Blog!
Best,
Janet
May we see a picture of this again in August please?
oooo I love the wash tub!! How perfect for you country farm house!!
But I really like the dark on with the red gerainums (sp?) in it!!
But the wash tub is totally what I would go for if I lived in the country!!
It’s GREAT! Seriously – now I want one, too! Only I don’t live anywhere near anyone with enough history of geography to make it half a hope to find one affordably at a yard sale. Dang, girlfriend – double gold star for awesome find and cheap one at that!
This year I turned two big old steel watering troughs, two slightly rusted pale yellow tractor tire rims and one twin wash bin stand into planters and I am ADORING them!!!! Great minds think alike is what I say =)
I’m sure that I’m one of MANY who would RATHER have that lovely item instead of an urn!! :)
Oh I LOVE it! Much more likely to be stately than same dang old urn. :) Pioneer Woman will be jealous of your grasses. After what happened to hers…
It reminds me of a miniature water tower. Cool!
Fantastic! I love a good garage sale find!
Sweet potato vines and dianthus are some of my favorites.
“Aquatic” Blue Rush spiky grass, you say? Hmm.
I think urns are overrated. Give me half a whiskey barrel any day. And you can even keep the whiskey if you’re so inclined. Your country urn is a better choice than anything all scalloped and curvy and expensive.
Oh you made me laugh and laugh and laugh.
In my early years of marriage I had 2 of those.
Oh yes, to rinse my clothes, not as a flower bed.
I love it! I want it! Make CD buy you a stately concrete urn so you can send me the washtub! Don’t you just love repurposing old stuff? Great job on the planting too!
I love it!! It’s perfect. I don’t even like the word “urn”, gives me the creeps. :)
P.S. Your clock here is way off isn’t it; just askin’. :)
Love it! It’s perfect.
I love it! Looks really good.
Um…where are you going in Europe?
That planter is perfect!!!
Glad I’m not the only one who has sticker shock from urns at your garden center. Had my eye on one, but figure I can buy lots of “art” at farm auctions for that much.
However, my great-aunt, who’s lived on farms for 80 years, can’t believe people decorate “with that old junk.” She ain’t seen nothin’ yet..
The country urn looks perfect. Hey did I see a boy on a riding mower in one of those pictures? Way to go CDW – make those boys earn their local dairy milk!
That’s awesome… much deeper and able to hold more than any urn you could have purchased with all that extra moola. Looks great!
That is awesome. However, promise me this Rechelle. Do not paint a large tractor tire white and add dirt and flowers. Please just do not. When I moved I left behind an old washer tub just like this. It was my hamper for awhile. I couldn’t move it out here with me….sigh…who’d a thunk flowers! It’s really perfect…very urn-est. (Get it? URNEST!! HAAhahhahh…hmmm…)
gorgeous. How do you keep the rabbits out? I have nothing left. NOTHING. Not even oleanders. They have eaten it all.
I think the showcats might control the bunnies.
I love it! It’s adorable. I love the spout kinda lookn’ thingie at the bottom. You may have started a whole new trend in faux urns :).
I have the same problem with spending. I vow that I will buy that object that i want so much, then I go look at the price tag and I don’t buy it. I find much more satisfaction in second hand–I can sell the thing at the next garage sale if it turns out I don’t want it after all and sometimes make a profit!