It is never too late for creativity, though it is too late to go to see it personally at the Chicago Botanic Garden Antiques & Garden Fair. The fair was last weekend, and I’m sooo glad I went. I’ve never been to the antique fair before, as I knew the prices would be out of my range. What I didn’t realize is that the great ideas are free (after you pay your $10-$15 admission). Free is well within my price range. My friend Addiz and I had a great time, and I came home with ideas to share with you.
Creativity spurs creativity. When I see great ideas like repurposing bird baths to be planters, I just love it. For example, take the stone birdbath in the picture to our left. Actually, you can’t just take it. You’d have to talk to the folks at Praiseworthy Antiques in NY to settle on a price. Isn’t it beautiful!
Or if you are the kind of person who just happens to have a cracked birdbath that you can’t part with (hmmm … sounds like me). Maybe a few years ago you would have filled it with dragon’s blood sedum (hmmm … again sounds like me.) The one you see on the right gets turned on its side for the winter. It is angled enough so that water doesn’t freeze in it, yet not so much that the sedum falls out
More creativity, this time from Al Linder. That would be albinlinder@yahoo.com in Minnesota. These silo pipes could be planters in your yard. I have no idea what a silo pipe even is, but that’s the fun it of. You look at something, and see something else. A couple of plants at the top and you’re a genius.
A majority of the items were high-end antiques that were not garden related. Or were they? We looked at several tables that weathered the test of time. Could a non-conventional table weather the weather? I can’t say that I’d put a $7000 antique table like Al’s in my yard, but Mike & I have been known to make an inexpensive item into something it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe we can find something to use as a base at the Kane County Antique Fair, and something else entirely to be the tabletop. So much more fun than buying a table and chairs at a big box store.
So what did I buy? Gardening gloves! Hard to imagine that these beauties from Foxgloves are going to survive my serious gardening. I’ll be able to find them in the garden since they are such a bright color, they are extra long, and the palms have grips.
Did these gloves survive? Check out December’s Christmas Gifts For The Gardener – Foxgloves to find out.
I would say about 80% of the fair was antiques, another 20% crafts, both with gardening interspersed. It was also 100% enjoyable!
Leave a Reply