Unearthing treasure at the local car boot sale
Larger plants do well in old buckets and basins, the rustier the better, and if I’m lucky I’ll find coloured enamel pails. Last year I planted two blue buckets with tall salvia ‘Purple Majesty’, which looked spectacular and have now been moved under cover to escape the wet weather, to reappear next spring. Since these are to be used as cachepots, their condition is not important, but there’s nothing to stop you attacking them with a wire brush, then painting with metal primer and paint. Cycle and car shops stock a good selection of metal paints. I have an old tin bath full of beautiful blue muscari, and several buckets of tulips ready to take their place by my back door as they come into flower. More unusual planters, such as old chimney pots, stone sinks and metal farmyard feeders, are also available to the eagleeyed, but at a price. There’s plenty of choice when it comes to garden furniture, though mostly in the white plastic department, which is irredeemable – but old deckchairs and director’s chairs are common, and can be re-covered by tacking on canvas from deckchairstripes. com. Second-hand good ornaments. Watering cans should be held up to the light to check for leaks. My favourite boot sale on the outskirts of Canterbury boasts several regular plant stalls. Some are genuine plants-people; some are local nurseries who realise the potential of this market; others just buy up plants and then resell – and then there are the stallholders who have too many of a certain plant, so pot them up and flog them with their other household cast-offs. You have to use your discretion and maybe repot with new compost when you get them home. I often find real gems, but have resisted many more. I found out about my local sales online at carbootjunction.com and carbootsales.org, but I see them mentioned in the local paper. If you’re planning to sell, telephone and visit first to find out what time sellers have to arrive. One step up are antique and junk fairs where the dealers buy, at Newark, Ardingly and Stoneleigh (see iacf.co.uk and antique-atlas.com). Over the past few months my favourite buys have been a large galvanised front door scraper (£15); a pretty child’s chair (50p) that I painted red and grey; a bright blue bucket (£7); a metal basket with an Art Nouveau wrought-iron bracket (more than I care to admit); an outside light (£15) – though to get an electrician to check it effectively wiped out any savings I might have made; and a metal waste-paper basket/cachepot (£1).