Unusual items to use as pots or plant support

Woostie

I've just painted an old wooden ladder I found in my outhouse which was left by the previous owner and I plan to use it as a trellis for my clematis.

This got me thinking, what items have you used or adapted to use in the garden as plant pots or in any other way. I'm looking forward to the shops opening up again so I can wander round the junk yards, so looking for some ideas please.

Skylarks

I saw lots of old terracotta chimneys a while back. With my clay soil, I’m toying with the idea of using them as planters/mini raised beds for plants. 

Ceres

Garden incinerators as large planters. They already have holes in the base for drainage and look great with plants cascading over the top and down the sides.

Obelixx

In previous incarnations of GW I have seen welly boots, old oil cans, laundry bins, sinks, basins, WCs used as containers.    Your imagination and the contents of local skips and junk shops are your only limitations.

gjautos

I've used teapots purchased in charity shops as small hanging baskets

steephill

10 or 14 litre plastic builders buckets, about £1 each and they last about a year before they get holed. Good size for tomatoes etc. and have a useful handle already so easy to transport if needed.

Fire

Drilled Ikea plastic boxes - with or without lids. A neighbour grewa big tom plant in a wicker laundry basket, lined. It worked very well. Dustbins with drilled holes in the base. Green street recycling boxes are very useful. Trugs can make good ponds or planters. All these cheap as chips on Ebay. Or find on local swap groups. I've just swept up two old rubbish bins with lids to make compost. Given by a neighbour moving away. It keeps in heat well and rats out.  Just add drainage holes.

Papi Jo

Obelixx said:

In previous incarnations of GW I have seen welly boots, old oil cans, laundry bins, sinks, basins, WCs used as containers.    Your imagination and the contents of local skips and junk shops are your only limitations.

I've always found the use of welly boots, tea-pots, WCs, and such junk as planters a terrible eyesore. @Obelixx you say that "people's imagination ... is the only limitation". I would add "people's imagination unfettered by such inhibiting factors as ... taste" (1).

But, each to their own.

(1) Paraphrasing Tom Lehrer's self-deprecating humor, quoting a New York Times review from 1959: Mr. Lehrer's muse is "not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste."

Dovefromabove

I think it’s sad and stifling when people feel they have to stick to what has always been done, using those things that are specifically designated by others, for their gardens. 

Where’s the creativity, originality and invention which has historically been so important to the creation of a garden, if you always rely on other people’s decisions about what you should use for what purpose?

As George Bernard Shaw said, ‘Caesar was a man of great common sense and good taste ... thereby a man without originality or moral courage.’

and an artist of my acquaintance says ‘I don’t know of any artist of significance whose intention it was to make tasteful work’.

Woostie

Thanks for all your lovely ideas. It's great to see such creativity being displayed. But @Papi Jo, why do you feel the need to criticise other peoples' choices? I thought this was supposed to be a friendly forum?

BenCotto

Personally I like this forum as people can express contradictory viewpoints. I sometimes spend some time on another gardening site and the moment somebody uploads a picture, no matter how mundane, you know there will be a slew of gushing ‘wows’ and ‘fabulouses’ so the thing becomes little more than an echo chamber.