I love to find old things which have outlived their original usefulness, and recycle them in my garden as pieces of garden art.

This old wooden ladder had been lying out in the grass beside the barn for eons, and every time I walked by it, I looked at it considering how I could use it in one of my gardens.

I decided the corner by the front porch would be just the place for the ladder.

After removing some pots containing a Japanese maple and some hellebores, I placed the ladder inside the fence, leveled it and proceeded to place potted plants I had scrounged from other places around the house, on the steps and top of the ladder.

A view of the competed project from below the step to the porch.

A birdhouse and sign I found, to add a little interest.

The hummingbird pot had been sitting on a shelf, waiting for that special place to live. I also had some hen & chicks looking for a place to live, so I paired the two of them and they are now happily occupying a place on one of the ladder's steps.

A pot of impatients and a fuchsia are perched on what was once a shelf of the ladder. A couple of polished stones and a small green lizard add a little pizazz to the vignette.

One of the bird houses, bought from a dollar store, which sit atop the
fence posts surrounding the garden.

After returning the potted Japanese maple to one side of the ladder and replacing the pieces of granite around the top of the two pots (the maple in it's pot, is sitting inside a larger decorative pot) I went in search for something to add a little interest. I thought the birdhouse does the trick, don't you?

Looking at my favorite place to sit, either in the early morning while drinking my coffee, if I am not wandering the garden with my camera taking pictures, or out of the heat later in the day. There is also a small water feature in the corner, which lends a soothing sound to this lovely spot.