My friend Michelle Yeaton planted some vintage stone urns with holiday colors and placed them on her front porch. They looked fabulous. I asked her if I could photograph them for the blog to illustrate ideas for “porch garden” decorating. She said yes and here is one of the urns…
But while I was there, I started photographing Michelle’s garden birdhouse collection and some of her more unusual container plantings and suddenly I realized that I really need to come back and do a full garden tour here.
See, Michelle is a garage sale hunter. She is up at 6 AM every single Saturday morning (rain or shine) looking for treasures in other people’s junk. She hits every garage sale in town and has been doing this for years. She has an eye for vintage and a “shabby chic” decorating style that carries over into her gardening adventures.
Just look around her garden. There are garage sale finds everywhere.
Keep in mind that this is the dead of winter here in Southern California which means we have mostly green and not a lot of color. But Michelle manages to keep the garden extremely interesting.
Here is a water feature she created in a vintage baby bathtub…
Here is a collection of treasures she has in her “porch garden”. The collection changes with the seasons…
I promise to come back in the spring and give you a full tour with an interview of Michelle. She is an excellent gardener and extremely creative with her use of plants. We can learn a lot from her. It will be great…
But in the meantime, I plan on running out to get some white cabbages to plant on my own front porch!
If you want to read about other awesome garden visits, check out these posts:
A visit to NANCYLAND – GWA Tour
A visit to URBAN EDIBLES – GWA Tour
A visit to LAUGHING SPIRIT – GWA Tour
A visit to LUCY HARDIMAN’S Garden – GWA Tour
About the Author
Theresa Loe blogs here about taking the garden full circle while striving for a more local, fresh-from-the-garden lifestyle. She is a TV producer, video host, freelance garden writer and a wrangler of chickens and children. (Not necessarily in that order.) For more information on these topics, you can subscribe to her free monthly newsletter.
Theresa Loe is the award- winning Co-Executive Producer & Canning Expert on Growing A Greener World TV. She blogs here about Living Homegrown®, local and fresh-from-the-garden. 
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Your “dead of winter” is our early fall. Don’t worry, there’s a lot less color here. And every time I attempt the shabby chic style, it winds up being shabby without chic!
Ha – Funny Kathy! Yes, there is definitely some tricks pulling off the Shabby Chic style. Hopefully, we will be able to get some tips from Michelle when I interview her. She does it with such ease!
I admire her yard saling tenacity. I couldn’t get up at 6 for most things.
I enjoy seeing others’ decorating techniques. We’re so utilitarian that we don’t bother much with aesthetics sometimes.
Yes Teresa, she is dedicated!!!! And boy does she find the deals! I just love how she pulls it all together.
It is fun to see how others decorate the garden (and the home). I think I will have to run some more posts on garden visits. I know I always get a few ideas viewing other’s gardens.
Your friend has created a really charming front porch with other people’s castoffs. One man’s trash really is another man’s treasure!
Is that an old trough urinal for a planter?
The Garden Shed
Ocha-
Nope that isn’t a urinal. It has a stopper plug and is actually a baby bathtub!
HOWEVER, Michelle does have a planter hanging on the wall next to it (not showing in the photo) which she thinks might be a very old urinal. Ha! She planted the possible urinal with coleus and it looks fabulous. You would never know! I will have to get a photo of it to show everyone next time.
i am trying to find out how much the baby bathtub is worth. thankyou trish
Hi Trish,
I am not sure how much it is worth. Michelle bought it at a swapmeet many, many years ago. Out here in Los Angeles they probably sell for $150 and up. But that is just a guess. And I am sure they are less expensive in other parts of the country.
~Theresa
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