When we found this old wagon left behind by the previous owners of our house, I knew I had to do something with it. Since most of the gardens here are already filled with perennials, I like to put my favorite annuals in planters. These are a combination of mini petunias and calibrachoa, two of my favorites.
Here you can see it in the yard, and our large “barn” garden to the right. I call it the barn garden because it is built into the foundation of an old barn. One of my 4th of July weekend projects was finishing painting our front door yellow.
The chickens seem to approve. This door now matches the other door which faces the street, seen below last fall with our angel Miss Sheba in front of it, along with our favorite flowers of the autumn, mums.

Back to petunias, did you know that many annual flowers will re-seed themselves? If you pull them up in the fall, the seeds will scatter everywhere and in the spring they’ll bring new flowers all on their own. That’s what happened with this planter. As usual, no work gardening is my favorite!
Of course, one of the dogs always has to get in on the flower photos, and I thought it would be fun to edit this photo with Luke to fit in with our retro theme.
Have you ever planted flowers in an unusual container?
We are happy to be joining the Flower Friday blog hop hosted by Da DB Boyz.
I have no imagination when it comes to this, but the neighbor up the street put a wheel barrow on its side, with flowers in and in front of it. It looks like the wheel barrow spilled its load. It’s pretty cool.
Oh yes, I’ve seen things like that too, though I’ve seen it done more with whiskey barrels, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it with a wheelbarrow. What a great use for something when it’s no longer usable for its original purpose…I’m going to try to remember that.
great way to repurpose old items. I have had some success where people thought I paid a high price for decorating items in my garden, I reused an old bathtub once and it looks amazing
I love the red wagon so much! My most creative planting project was using an old door frame as a trellis.
Thank you! The door frame is a really cool idea too! We have a couple old doors kicking around here and I’m trying to think of something to do with those, before my hubby throws them out or burns them. 🙂
I love the wagon as a planter. What gorgeous flowers!
Your flowers look so great! Yup I plant flowers in weird things.
I’ve always liked petunias, except they can get a bit sticky. Your home looks wonderful and the yellow door is so cheery.
The photo with Sheba is sweet. I was weeding through photos of our house & yard last week and ran across several with our Bentley. It was nice to see him again, even if only in photos. I hope you feel the same way with your pictures of Sheba.
Yes, it was so nice to see Sheba in photos. I actually thought I only had good photos of Luke in front of that door, so what a pleasant surprise to find Sheba in one, where she was actually posing so nicely. ♥
The chickens are good judges of things, because we love what you did with the wagon, too. 🙂
We love your house and yard. So charming!
Thank you so much!!
I always love seeing unique planters like this in people’s yards, but I know if I tried it, I’d end up with something the Pinterest fail category 😉 I love the yellow door, too! So cheerful.
Beautiful flowers you got there little one! 😀
Oh, everything is looking so great!! Nice job getting the door done! Love the wagon full of flowers!
Despite all the beautiful flowers and incredibly creative way you planted them … what struck me the most was how much bigger your chickens are! Apparently, Bear’s not the only one with a tasty whole chicken obsession around here 🙂
Hahaha, you are all about the chickens over there! Ellie Mae is bound to join that group. I can’t believe how big the chickens are either. Hopefully in a few more weeks we’ll be seeing our first eggs!
We love seeing old things like the wagon used as planters. So pretty!
Your door looks terrific and we love your flower wagon!
Love the yellow door! And thanks for saving the Radio Flyer wagon. Their original plant is not far from where we live, but they are all made in China now and plastic. Old ones can be worth a lot of money so you might want to make sure yours’ isn’t! Love Dolly
I didn’t even know they made plastic ones now – what a bummer. This one is so rusty I doubt it’s worth anything. I wished it was in better condition. But we will definitely hang onto it, that’s for sure.
I love the wagon full of flowers! We have our children’s Red Flyer wagon and if we don’t re-do it for our granddaughter, I will take your idea and plant flowers in it.
Oh, that’s so great you kept your children’s wagon! No matter what you do with it, you’ll always have those great memories it will bring.
We love your house and the wagon. It adds lots of character
Snorts,
Lily & Edward
Your calibrachoa are ‘furbulous’ and that little Radio Flyer is adorable. Thank you for sharing your beautiful garden areas. Gotta love it when reseeding annuals return to fill old planters. Have a happy weekend.
One other thing that re-seeded itself quite well was my dill! I had harvested a whole bunch of seeds and before I even got to plant them, it started popping up on its own (I actually had to pull some out because it was crowding my other herbs).
Dill & chives. Massive re-seeders here. Oy.
Love those petunias and that yellow door–they’re so homey! 🙂
The red doors the house had were OK, but I crave bright colors, and love every little thing we can do to make this house our own. ♥
I love the creativity of flowers planted in unusual – and especially vingate – containers. Near us, one house has two vintage Schwinn bicycles nestled in their garden with flowers overflowing the baskets on the handlebars. I’ve seen flowers in old crocks, barrels, wagons similar to yours, and so many other things (one person had planted flowers in an old toilet and put it on their front lawn, but neighbors signed a petition against it and the township made him remove it! LOL). I just love the character it brings to a garden.
What a cool idea with the bicycles! I’ve seen bigger wagons as planters too, I’d love to find one of those to use some day. I would definitely pass on the toilet idea though! It was bad enough we had one sitting in our front yard for a while after tearing it out of the house – LOL.
The flowers are all beautiful! Love that you used the old wagon as a planter! I had a “Radio Flyer” wagon when I was a little girl. My brother – who is about 5-1/2 years older – used to pull me around in it all the time. Seeing yours brought back some sweet memories.
I started to cry when I saw angel Sheba sitting in front of the door. She and my angel Callie were such happy pups. And they’re probably happily playing together in Heaven. Love your bright yellow doors! As inviting as a sunny day!!
At first I was going to use a photo of Luke in front of that door, but when I saw the one of Sheba, I knew I had to use that. Gosh, we miss their golden smiling faces, don’t we?
We had one of those wagons as children too, so it was really cool to find it here at the house.