Garden Junk

Junk

by Mary Randolph Carter

Carter's advice on what to do with a corroded tool is useful; consult her list of junk shops quickly, before the owners decide they're hawking antiques.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Art

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1997

Reviews

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so much fun! I live on a farm and have a large yard and garden. I'm always looking for unique items to set in my flower bends and along the fences to make the view more interesting. This book is loaded with ideas! I was inspired to look around our farm and was surprised to find items that I never would have thought to use as planters, plant stands, displays, and accessories. This book is so enjoyable and full of excellent photos and pictures that will interest any type of gardener.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Scottish dad had an old kitchen table and sawed it in half and propped it up and made it into a garden bench. Had said table been wood, it might have been a bit of whimsy that mellowed in the fern fronds. However, it was some sort of metal and weird blue top made of some alien material. At first it just peeled, then it started shredding and looking like it had a fungus, then we got to where we would call the dog away from it because it was truly fearsome.

Once, driving, I saw a giant paper-mache pig propped up by some trash cans. It was enormous and fat and this great nasty pink and it was dressed for a fancy outing. I slammed on the brakes immediately. My middle school aged son begged me to return for it after dropping him off at school, silly boy, some one else would have snatched it up. I buckled it into the front seat and drove him to school - although I couldn't see much of him, the way he had sunk down low in the back seat, and he insisted I stop a block away from the school. The pig had a good run standing in the back yard in the center of the ivy, and I swear the skunks kept out of our yard for a time. It started, sadly, to resemble the garden bench my father had made, and once we had to call the dogs away from it, I knew its days were numbered.

The acorn apparently doesn't fall far from the tree. And most garden junk - sorry, Mary R. Carter, - I love your books but junk is junk is junk and looks worse in all that greenery. Better to move it into one's home office where all junk is supposed to be. That and my kitchen drawers.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anyone who knows me knows that my favorite saying is "I can make that." I love a can of spray paint, some glue or nails, and I adore a good bargain, but sometimes junk is just junk. There are some good ideas in here, and while I can appreciate whimsy, I have yet to pass a house or shop loaded with stuff and think 'whoa, how creative'. Rather, I think 'whoa, whatta pack rat!' A few good pieces here and there are fine, but when everything is so 'artfully' placed, it's too much. Less is more, go cheap, go green - but if your house resembles a junk bin, that's too much.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is now an older book, so I doubt if all the resources listed at the end are still in business. But still, it's a list to start with, if you want to go out junking.

Photography in this book is good, but style-wise, the stuff is a bit too primitive for my taste. Though the sections that are truly on what's in the garden are interesting and give great ideas that could be expanded to your own garden. Especially the hardscape items.

[Pattie Tierney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I figured now is the time to start reading books like this so I have things in mind when I start hitting the antique markets, garden centers, avant garde nurseries, etc. This is a fun book, I'm really enjoying it.