There are some functional items that are just so aesthetically pleasing that even when they are no longer useful we want to have them around. Wine bottles, tin olive oil cans, and wooden spools for example. Sometimes we collect these things just because they are beautiful…looking at them makes us feel good. Galvanized watering cans fall into this category. I don’t know about you, but when I run across an inexpensive one at a garage sale or thrift store, I can’t resist taking it home even if there are holes in the bottom, bent handles or missing parts to the spout.
Galvanized watering cans can be displayed as is in a group, screwed on the tops of fence posts, or used as the heads on scarecrows. Weight them with rocks and place them along the edge of garden beds and paths to serve as “hose guides” so your plants don’t get smashed every time you drag out the hoses to water. Use weighted cans to fill bare places in the garden as needed, or punch holes in the bottom and pile them on a stake as a totem.
Plant the cans with seasonal displays. Low growing plants such as moss, sedum, or succulents are especially attractive as they don’t overwhelm the can but compliment its form.
I took pliable old yogurt containers and filled them with soil topped with moss for these cans. They were filled with gravel first that supported those planters and weighted the cans so they couldn’t blow over.
If the cans you’re using don’t have holes on the bottom to drain out rainwater, be sure to use mosquito dunks inside so that you won’t be providing those pesky insects with a place to breed. Summit 20-Pack Mosquito Dunk
