A huge amount of architectural salvaged items are suitable for decoration in a garden. When older buildings are demolished some of best the features from them come onto the market via salvage yards and local antique dealers.
For me there is a huge amount of fun and satisfaction getting down and dirty rummaging around salvage yards, markets and farm sales looking for interesting items suitable for both garden & interior decoration and really letting my imagination run wild. I must admit to receiving more than the occasional strange glance or comment as I've been carrying & loading my bounty of treasures from various yards, markets and sales over the years.
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| Picture courtesy of Robin Stott |
Like all antiques and vintage items the prices vary enormously depending on age, provenance, size etc. However the more modern pieces such as early 20th century items are more readily available and still reasonably affordable.
Large quantities of European architectural salvaged items are now regularly imported into North America and available in the majority of our cities.
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| A huge assortment of items waiting to be reclaimed... Offered by; www.leorec.co.uk |
One of the more popular items are Saddle Stones, originally used in Britain from around the middle ages to support and to lift storage buildings such as granaries off the ground protecting them from rodents and water. These were until fairly recently pretty much unheard off in the US but now feature in a great deal of period garden design simply due to their great aesthetics and their ease of use in edging a pathway or creating a feature.
It can be reasonably easy to accommodate a salvaged piece into the garden and like I said it just takes imagination and some lateral thinking, for example I think the antique limestone window frame pictured below would make a wonderful and very elaborate surround for a garden pond or how about the English Staffordshire Chimney pot overflowing with your favourite colourful blossoms.
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| An ornate stone window frame.. Or could it the fabulous pond surround you'd been looking for ?? Offered by www.leorec.co.uk |
Old stone or iron feeding troughs are great for planting out and a small flight of salvaged stone steps would make a real feature leading down into the pond.
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| A Flight of Early Victorian Stone Steps, Recently Restored by John Mac Manus at www.flintwalls.com |
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| Picture courtesy of Lady Tara-Stock |
Vintage agricultural or farm machinery makes an interesting country feature or try laying a pathway with old stone or terracotta floor tiles maybe topped with a row of olive jars to give a more Mediterranean feel.
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| Vintage Farm Implements can add Interesting Features to a Garden |
Finally I couldn't end this post without adding the perfect example of British reclamation, not sure it would make a period garden setting but certainly a feature though..
Difficult roads often leads to beautiful destinations. :)
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