Thrift store or tag sale finds and gardens come nicely together in the summertime. Those cheerful dishes and flower pots that were so appealing in sales can be used to supply some instant happy color in a garden. Many have assorted odd dishes already in cupboards or on shelves, just waiting to be stacked in the garden. Here’s a hint: glue them in stages. Find the order you want to stack things in, and then glue them two at a time, allowing those stacks of two to dry for 24 hours before you attach them all together.
Be sure to turn bowls down so that they don’t collect water when it rains. Even a tiny bit of water will be a breeding ground for mosquitoes. See below for an idea for making this tower more secure so it doesn’t tip in the wind.
Use a water-proof silicone glue, attaching two pieces together and letting those harden for 24 hours before you stack them all together.
I found an old terracotta flower pot that had a bottom the right size to fit into my colorful pot. I then buried the top 2/3 of the terracotta pot in the ground. The bottom colorful pot slipped over the terracotta pot so that the tower is securely held upright in the garden. The terracotta pot is then covered with soil.
I love how the colorful stack provides a surprising dash of playful color. I planted the top bowl on my stack with moss from this shade garden. The flower in the front of the photo is a purple stemmed Angelica, a biennial that travels around my gardens and blooms in August.
