Don’t Throw That Wheelbarrow Away

Last June my neighbor was moving her mom to assisted living. As she was going through the garage she would put things out by the curb if anyone could use them before she took them to the recycling center. I already knew I wasn’t going to fall for the thought of even looking because probably everything would have ended up in our yard! And this was way before I participated in the De-Clutter you Mess Challenge this past January! But I made the mistake of checking to see if both mom and daughter were doing okay and that’s when I saw it. I ran across the street and said, “Don’t throw that wheelbarrow away, I can use it!” Well could I REALLY use it or was it something I THOUGHT I might be able to use? Yes, that was it, I thought I might be able to use the old rusty wheelbarrow as a garden decoration or even to plant flowers in!

You guessed it, as I wheeled it across the street I went in the side gate thinking I could camouflage the wheelbarrow in the corner of the side yard but hubby was there saying to just load it in the back of the truck to take to the recycling center. I just couldn’t do that, I knew I could come up with some place for it and something to put in the wheelbarrow.

Well it sat in our side yard for almost a year! Finally last month when Lia was planting all her wild flowers I brought the old rusty wheelbarrow to the back yard. Rich drilled some holes in the bottom of it and filled it with garden soil. After it was prepared, Lia and I sprinkled flower seeds that will attract butterflies. The directions said to plant the seeds in a sunny location and the best thing is, we can push the wheelbarrow where ever the sun is!

About a week after the seeds were planted, the started sprouting out of the soil. Lia and Pop watered them everyday and they continued to grow. After another week the little plants had more than tripled in size.

It’s been about three weeks and we have a wheelbarrow filled with wild flower plants and I’m hoping we will get flowers on them soon.

A few people asked if I was going to paint it but I kinda like the rustic, old country look. It shows that the old rusty wheelbarrow has had a long hard life but now it’s being used to bring happiness to the butterflies and beauty to our yard. While I’m doing good about my de-cluttering there are somethings I just have to check out especially if it’s something for the garden or yard. So next time you hear me say, “DON’T THROW THAT AWAY!” you can probably guess I found a treasure for the garden!

Back when we were making Lia’s Reflection Garden we were at the recycling center and I saw someone with two old benches he was throwing away. I ran over before you tossed them in the container and asked if we could have one. He even helped load it in our truck! Again hubby wasn’t too excited about it but I knew it had potential and I had been searching for a garden bench for Lia! As soon as we got home with it, Pop and Lia were scraping it down to get ready to revive the old bench. This is another trash to treasure project plus it saved the landfill! http://themarthareview.com/garden-bench-time-lapse-for-wordless-wednesday/