I went outside to take a picture of a lovely blooming and ever so drought-tolerant little shrub in the garden, only to discover that its blooms had come and gone. I’ll have to catch it on the next bloom cycle, because I love it so (it’s called a Pyramid Bush). But what did catch my eye were some of the objects decorating our fence, and I realized that I’d never actually posted about them.
From time to time, tools break beyond repair, and I hate to see them go to waste. It’s amazing what a bit of paint can do.
This saw blade isn’t technically a garden tool, but it certainly has helped build things for the garden. It makes a perfect flower.
How about a shovel that becomes a rose, with a rake as the foliage? The rake is actually painted a light green, but in the sun it looks more yellow than lime, I admit. Someday, if I happen to have a different color of leftover paint, I might paint over it, but part of this endeavor is utilizing what I have at home, not going out and buying something. 
Look what I found behind the rose shovel — a spent Gulf Fritillary chrysalis. That little caterpillar crawled a long way across the garden to become a butterfly!
A smaller sawblade gave an opportunity for another bloom, and a second shovel blade became a Purple Coneflower. The coneflower might be my favorite of the tool bouquet, honestly. The butterfly isn’t a leftover tool, obviously, but a gift from sweet friends.
Some day I might paint some stems on the fence to complete all the flowers. I had saved a broken garden hose to be the stems, but the pieces are more complicated to hang and I just haven’t been inspired yet to do so.
A little too awkward to hang on the fence, this tool gets its own stand. The broken mud masher, formerly used to mix cement, inspired a serpentine theme. By the way, it’s sitting on a painted log — we have a few such logs in different colors around the backyard woodlands, and they add a nice touch of color here and there.
Though this painted old chair (I’ve always called it a potty chair, but I don’t know if that’s really what it once was) isn’t exactly a former tool and nor is it broken, I thought I should include it with the group of colorful, re-purposed objects around the garden. I painted it a few years ago and added a Golden Barrel Cactus for mischievous fun. Just don’t sit on it!
Got any fun ways you give broken tools a new life?
Nice! I’d be a bit worried about those sharp saw blades though, because even the ones that are too dull for wood are happy to bite into people.
The cactus chair would probably get me at some point — I’d be doing something in the area, lose my balance, and end up taking a seat. Ouch. 🙂
True, Alan — always important to be careful with saw blades, even dull ones. I can’t say I’ve been tempted to sit on the cactus chair, even accidentally. Even before it had a cactus, it had a big hole in it. It’s never really been a chair as far as I’ve been concerned!
I have some old metal rake heads that I’ve seen people turn into hanging organizers. That’s a clever idea, but I admire your whimsy. What animal or insect does a metal rake head bring to mind? May some imaginative dragon fly wings? Any other thoughts?
Hi, Ally. I do love those dirt rake organizers — if mine ever break, I’m going to use them to hold trowels. If inspired to do an animal theme with a dirt rake head, would a caterpillar or centipede work?
Oooh, the chair looks a little painful–but such a wonderful, whimsical idea. You are so creative, Meredith. Will you come over to my house to give me advice and paint my old, found objects?! 😉
Let them inspire you! The masher, for example, really dictated a snake creation to me, but I probably could have intertwined ribbon or twine, etc., to make some sort of hanger for a basket. Hmmmm, actually, I still could do that….
I really like what you have done with the garden tools! I wish I was as creative as you are. I have several broken tools laying around and was just watching shark tank last week and they had an alternative for broken garden tools as well. I read an article at http://www.FiberFixed.com that has a fiber mesh that hardens like steal and people are using it to put back together their tools so they can use them again. If you have too many you could always re-use some of them =)
Thanks, Deb. Would be nice to fix things on occasion, for sure. But we were given some old tools that wore out over time — nice to give them a different purpose, bringing color to the garden.