Hello and welcome to the Vintage Gardens Blog Hop! I am happy to be hosting this hop today and to be joining my vintage loving friends to share how we have added vintage garden style to our homes and gardens for summer.

To start off the hop I am sharing my own little vintage summer garden tour of the area by our back (side) door. It’s hard to believe I just threw this all together at the last minute for the hop, but I love how it all turned out!

I was really struggling with what to do about this hop when I noticed how bad the flowers and landscape plants looked a couple of weeks ago. Instead of stressing about it, I just embraced my tried and true method of using old things I already have in new ways. Since the flower beds look scraggly and weedy, I decided to simply focus on fixing up a charming container garden area by the back door. I found a wrought iron baker’s rack (or a “plant stand”) at a consignment shop just in time for the hop. I have been looking for something tall to put by the back door for a while, and I am loving how the plant stand looks.

I grabbed a couple of vintage garden tools from my outdoor junk stash and borrowed a few of my pretty pots from the front porch to move around back. It is time to refresh the front porch for late summer anyway, so change is good!

I realized at the last minute that I needed some type of wreath or door decor, and this vintage style Carrier Pigeon Postal Box mailbox from Victorian Trading Co. was just the solution!  I have been waiting to find the perfect spot for the mailbox since I received it in my happy mail from Victorian Trading Co. in the spring, and I absolutely love it hanging on the back door. *I am so honored to be partnering with Victorian Trading Co. and to share their beautiful decor and gifts with my readers!

The mailbox is so beautiful and I really think it looks perfect as door decor! Other than Christmas I will probably keep it on the back door year round. It is certainly a great accent for a vintage garden themed area! I love the patina and the pretty bird and flourishes motif too. Sometimes we leave notes for family or neighbors on the back door, so the mailbox will actually come in handy.

Carrier Pigeon Postal Box

I really wanted to add a bit more flower power in this spot for the garden hop, so I ran to Lowe’s today and picked up some Echinacea (cone flowers) and put them in an old galvanized bucket for insta-color! I am planning a perennial garden for next year, so I will plant these in the back yard in September.

When I was looking for a small plate to stick down in the ferns, I found another pretty vintage flower plate to add more color and vintage garden style to the second shelf of the baker’s rack.

Old vintage plates with floral patterns are easy to come by when out junkin’ and thrifting. They are usually fairly inexpensive, especially if they have knicks or chips. Vintage plates and saucers look just as pretty when displayed as garden accessories as they do in a tablescape or in a china cabinet.

The addition of the baker’s rack absolutely transformed this little back door entry by giving it some vintage character and visual interest.

I shared this pretty Stately Manor Birdhouse from Victorian Trading Co. a couple of weeks ago. I had it hanging by the front door, but now I think I will leave it here hanging on a shepherd’s hook by the lilac bush. We use our back door as the main entry, so the “Welcome Home” charm with vintage style key is fitting!

The birdhouse also looks like it could be a new home for my pair of blue, shabby-chic style garden birds perched on the shelf in the background.

This summer I made some changes to my dining room which included clearing out quite a bit of vintage silverplate. I couldn’t part with any of it though! I have been wanting to repurpose a few pieces as succulent containers, so today I grabbed one of the pieces out of my stash and dug up a succulent from the garden and stuck it down inside. Voila! Vintage garden style!

This vintage Radio Cart wheel barrow is one of my favorite garden junk finds, so I had to share it for this post. Earlier this summer I had the cart filled with petunias and mixed containers of annuals, but they didn’t last long. For these photos I stuck the galvanized bucket of pretty cone flowers  down inside along with some lavender that has seen better days!

To the right of the back door is my “shabby-vintage junk garden.” Vintage junk pretty much “grows” year round here. As I find new treasures from my junkin’ adventures I just rearrange things and add seasonal container flowers and herbs.

This summer has not been very good for gardening or junkin’, but all was not lost! After many years of searching I finally scored the vintage cast iron garden furniture of my junk dreams, with the desired rusty white patina and all! I love how these three little pieces fit snuggly right in the flower bed beside the sidewalk.

My shabby-tabby vintage garden kitty looks purrrrrffect lying on the small chair.

Other than a few azaleas and a holly further around the side of the house, there are no plants planted in the ground in this area. Instead I use vintage finds and pretty containers of plants for beauty and interest.

The lovely Cottingley Garden Sprites from Victorian Trading Co. have made their way from the front porch to the shabby garden.  Aren’t they just stunning?

Cottingley Garden Sprite Stakes

No matter where the Cottingley garden sprites land, they add such beauty! To find out more about them be sure to check out my post, Introducing The Lovely Cottingley Garden Sprites.

I love how this little settee fits perfectly in the corner next to a found antique bird bath. Two rusty antique ceiling tiles salvaged from a historic hotel add chippy-shabby visual interest and texture. A rusty old birdcage sits on top of the birdbath with a pretty vintage mini-statue inside. This little section of the garden is full of vintage goodness and just makes my vintage junk-loving heart so happy!

I certainly hope you have enjoyed my vintage summer garden tour today! Even though I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time in the garden this summer, I hope to be feeling much better as the weather cools down toward autumn which will give me some much needed healing garden therapy with my herbs and flowers. I have big plans for my fall garden displays so I do hope you will plan to come back for a fall garden tour!

Now it’s time to check out all of the other beautiful and inspiring posts on the Vintage Gardens Blog Hop! Next up is Rita of Panoply,  sharing an Art Walk In The Garden. After visiting Rita’s beautiful blog you can continue taking all the garden tours by visiting each of the links below (or via the links at the end of this post.) Enjoy them all, and have a great summer!

Thanks so much for visiting dear friends!

Follow The Yellow Brick Home | Panoply | Decor To Adore 

My Thrift Store Addiction | Petite Haus | Poofing The Pillows

Art and Sand | Belle Bleu Interiors | Have A Daily Cup Of Mrs. Olson

The Painted Hinge | White Arrows Home | County Road 407

Lora B. Create and Ponder | Beauty For Ashes

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