The Garden Decor You Should Never Pass Up On At The Thrift Store

Garden decor sometimes shows up in unexpected places. If you're shopping for something unique and budget-friendly, taking a look around your local thrift stores can yield surprising pieces of decor for your garden. When it comes to things that are absolutely worth picking up, there are two thrift store items you shouldn't overlook for your garden: copper planters and staddle stones. These can be heavy, but they're more than worth the effort of dragging them out to your car.

Thrifting items for your garden is the best way to create a space that reflects your personality and preferences without overspending. You'll also be doing the environment a favor by using them and preventing them from being thrown away. If you have a vision that's ready to shape your garden, it's easy to incorporate any pre-owned garden decor that you pick up from a thrift store sale, particularly if you spot a copper planter or staddle stone. 

As you're shopping in thrift stores for your garden, be sure to check for copper planters. Vintage and antique copper can be more valuable depending on what stamps are imprinted on the metal. You may be able to find these while thrifting, and they look much more thematic than the humble plastic planter (though those are great to have an extra supply of). When thrift shopping for planters, don't ignore copper that looks like it's rusting. The copper is not actually rusting; it's a chemical reaction that creates a patina, making the copper turn green or look darker in places. It takes time to age a copper planter, so finding one secondhand means you don't have to wait for that desired patina to develop.

Copper planters can be added to a garden straight away, no matter what condition they're in, but they may require a liner inside them. Ensure that you grow edible plants (vegetables, fruits, and herbs) inside another container that you place inside your copper planter or have the planter lined. Direct contact allows copper from the planter to leach into the soil you're growing your plants in, and there is a potential health risk of consuming plants grown in soil containing copper. Copper can also be toxic to plants in large quantities, so it's best to have a secondary plant pot inside any copper ones anyway. 

British staddle stones are another garden decor you should never pass up if you see them in a thrift store. These stones were once used to support farm buildings and keep away pests. They have two parts: a base and a head, which gives them their mushroom-like appearance. They're quite heavy because they are made of solid stone, so don't expect them to be easy to move around. Antique and reclaimed staddle stones are pricey, so finding them in a thrift store is a rare opportunity; some are sold online for hundreds (or thousands) of dollars. 

A whimsical garden could be in your future if you end up decorating any staddle stones you find. By painting them, you could highlight their mushroom-shaped appearance and turn them into actual mushroom statues. Alternatively, keep your staddle stones exactly as you found them to be used as small, peaceful seating spaces in your garden for your guests. You could also decide to honor their origins by using them as the legs of a raised garden bed to keep your crops or seeds off the ground and away from small critters.