Garden Finds

With the same family living here for  sixty years, and then ten years of neglect, the garden at New Acorn Cottage holds many secrets.

Early on, beneath the overgrown shrubbery, we found large items like cement lanterns and sculpture and candle holders and even a little bird fountain.

Everything is rusty and has two coats of paint on it. Just like the interior wall colors, it appears the property went through two color phases: pink and turquoise.

We also found things hanging in trees: chimes, bird feeders, tiny cages, planter baskets, and lanterns.

Then we found smaller items as we weeded and cleared flowerbeds.

Many of these items have been dusted off and placed around the garden in more visible locations. The butterfly now guards the "lettuce bowl", and the quail greet visitors at the back gate. The candle holders hold citronella candles to ward off mosquitoes when we sit outdoors.

Lately, as we dig out rocks and adjust paths, we've been finding buried items like this glass float and this little "Doll-E-Toys" baby bottle.

One thing we've found that's really cool, but extremely scary, is several sets of decorative garden lights connected with wires laying right on the dirt! Thank goodness those wires aren't connected any longer, but imagine a gardener's shock at finding one of those wires with a shovel.

Along with all these blogworthy finds, I've found bottles, broken tiles, abalone shells, lots of rocks, rotten branches, stumps, and stepping stones.

Have you ever found anything interesting in your garden?