Gardening for Scrap Metal

Metal Praying Mantis made with scrap iron

We have a new loosely formed garden group.  The rules are there can't be any rules except courtesy to whoever is initiating some fun thing to do.  And since we're all gardeners, courtesy is a way of life so there ya' go.

One of the group who (with her husband) owns the local metal scrap yard, invited us to a morning of scavenging or pickin' for garden objects.  When someone is pickin',  "garden object" is in the eye of the beholder and twice the fun.

We came prepared with heavy work shoes, gloves and old clothes.  It was a cool breezy day so insects weren't an issue.  It was perfect pickin' weather.

Honestly, if we'd had a crane and cutting torch we would have been dangerous.  In leu of those, we culled what we could carry.  In addition, a beautiful patch of wild flowers (perhaps "Purple Prairie Clover") was dug in hopes of transplanting. And our friend also brought each of us a start of Sedum "Neon".

So what did we find:

A heavy cast iron thing with a hollow center and flared on both ends.  About 3 ft. tall, it will become a table with the addition of millstone on top.

Various license plates and street signs to become roofs for bird houses.

Several old cast iron pieces from planters, pickers and hoes.

Bottle flower from rebar.

Rebar (a gardener can't too much rebar.)

Lots of pieces of things from who knows what that will be repurposed into signs and object of art.

What we might have got:

Large pieces of sheet metal that had beautiful unusual holes stamped in them - they would make fabulous trellis.

Metal wheels still attached to old farm equipment (the torch reason) could be a fence or art.

And then bins and stuff and such.

Yes, a day at the scrap yard is a day of gardening fun!