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Bring the beauty of your garden into your home all year round with garden memorabilia. This interesting and prolifically growing hobby has been steadily growing in popularity the past few years with the onset of many gardening shows on television and radio. Gardening artifacts, trivets and treasures are enhancing homes all over the world with their simplicity of style and charm of the ages.
Becoming a garden memorabilia collector is a wide-open field of possibilities. Many garden collectors look for a variety of objects, including: Watering cans, metal, glass, ceramic frogs, old gates or trellises, select gardening tools, birdhouses, tubular steel lawn chairs, wooden work benches, sprinklers, nozzles and bug sprayers.
During the 1900’s, frogs were created to serve specific purposes, and these are hot collectible items for their functionality as well as their age. Wooden frogs made in Germany opened up to function as an overnight pocket-watch holder. Other frogs served as banks, paper embossers, paperweights and toys. American-made ceramic frogs from the 1920s were made with holes for floral arrangements.
Cast iron gardening frogs have been known to sell for thousands of dollars at auctions. Certain decorative boxes, such as Limoge porcelain, are interesting to some collectors. These can be priced anywhere from $150 up, but don’t leap away with sadness! You can still garner some cute and interesting frog pieces, such as cookie jars or knickknacks for just a few dollars. Arrange the frogs on your shelf among the other collectibles in a peek-a-boo pattern, or merely set a frog atop a pile of books for a charming effect!
Don’t limit your animal habitat to just frogs either! Duckies, geese and even alligator figurines are quickly becoming valuable gardening collectible items! A three-prong pitchfork lying against a wall surrounded by a family of ducklings can make an interesting look in the contrast of the rusted pitchfork and the bright yellow ducks! Contrast and style enhance a room and provide interesting conversation pieces as well.
When decorating your interior home with plants, watering cans and gardening tools, you may want to put down a layer of plastic sheeting, or perhaps some saran wrap, to protect your fine wood mantles and shelves against rust, leakage and scratches.
Tired of having a porch that is used only for collecting shoes, sports equipment and out of season clothing? Consider bringing the beauty and charm of the garden indoors and spruce up that musty old porch with an alignment of gardening items and artifacts. What better way to liven up a room than a burst of color from Sunflower pictures framed in a 1950’s frame, or decorative water cans set among pictures?
You can decorate old rusted water cans however you wish, including holiday themes. Look for lithographed children’s watering cans dated from Victorian times to as recently as the 1970’s. In particular, watering cans that feature themes or time periods, such as images of children in 1950’s rompers are especially valuable. Don’t forget to look for toy manufacturer labels under the cans such as Wolverine who usually stamped their names on the bottom of the pails.
Consider spray painting three to five galvanized watering cans bright red, put festive bows on the handles, add water, and fill them with branches of the season such as pine (tie on some tiny red bows) or berried holly for the Christmas season!
You may want to space out your collectibles using household items such as books or even candleholders between each piece of pottery, potted plants or watering cans. Votive candles can be lit to enhance your collectible, but be certain that nothing flammable is set within striking distance!
Wooden birdhouses, decorative with sprigs of holly, moss or miniature birds help bring the flavor of tone of the outdoors into your home. Many craft shops sell rustic looking birdhouses, and they are inexpensive to create your own as well with a few dried flowers and some hot glue guns!
In recent years the prices of vintage garden tools and accessories have climbed steadily. Husbands as well as wives are into gardening now, and with this renewed interest comes an interest in such odd and eclectic collectibles such as hoses, sprays, and even old lawn mowers! You don’t have to have a green thumb to collect and enjoy the many artifacts of garden memorabilia in your home.
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