Last year, I came up with an idea. I enjoy repurposing metal containers, such as buckets and colanders and wash tubs, in the garden. I use them as receptacles for a variety of plants and flowers. It gives my backyard paradise a bit of an industrial look.
My idea was to hang a metal grid beneath a workshop window, using it as a shelf for potted plants. I could see what that idea looked like, carried out. I could imagine how cute the shelf would be and how it would tie in with the rest of my garden. However, after searching all summer, in hardware stores, flea markets and junk stores, I could not locate a metal shelf or grate that would work. Summer drew to a close.
My daughter Elissa let me know a couple of weeks ago that she had some stuff she was clearing out of her house, items she had purchased at junk shows or flea markets and no longer wanted. She asked if I was interested in the metal baskets that she had. I agreed to take them. I can always use a metal basket, in the garden or inside the house.
Last week she dropped of those treasures. I was delighted with the metal baskets. One caught my attention immediately. It was a large rectangular shape, with the back slightly higher than the front. I realized it was the perfect size and shape to become the metal shelf in my garden.
Greg helped me hang the repurposed shelf late this afternoon. It fit perfectly beneath the window on the south side of the workshop, the side that faces into the garden. In moments the shelf was up and I had plopped three terra cotta pots onto it. There’s room still on the shelf to fill in with some additional plants. It is as cute as I imagined it to be.
As a bonus, Elissa also brought me a rustic, and rusty, wire box with a high back on it. This piece definitely belongs in my backyard garden! Greg hung it for me too. It’s empty at the moment but it won’t be for long. I’m envisioning more pots in this hanging basket, with vining, flowering plants that climb up the metal back.
I love these additions to the garden and I appreciate that my daughter gifted them to me. The magic is this…a year ago an idea came to me. In spite of a clear visual about what the metal shelf looked like and how it would be used, I couldn’t locate it. However, the desire went forth.
Inspiration comes to me and my experience is, if I receive an idea, I have the ability to carry it out. Sometimes the idea becomes reality immediately. And sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve learned to stay open and let go of how it’s going to come about and when. I love the way this idea manifested in my life, without any further effort on my part.
The shelf came to me, by way of my daughter. And I received a second fun metal piece to create with in the garden, and two more metal baskets to play with, using them either indoors or outdoors. That’s abundance, beyond what I had imagined.
These creative experiences are bigger than gardening magic. They are life lessons in trusting and allowing, staying open to possibilities and detaching from the hows, the way the outcome is achieved. They teach me that every element of my life is important to the Divine. I am so very grateful!
