Decorating Your Garden with an Antique Stove
Using an antique stove to decorate your garden can be a striking if not totally unique look to make it stand out in a backyard garden. The stove itself can be a reproduction or a restored antique one if you decide to use one in your garden. A parlor stove or coal stove is ideal for this project because the door to the inside of the stove can either be left on or removed to show the plants inside more fully.
Antique shops and flea markets are the ideal places to find a stove of this kind. Once you have acquired the stove that you would like to use in your garden, wipe it down with a damp cloth if necessary, removing any dust or dirt that has collected on it over the years. It does not have to be perfect in appearance, especially if it is much older without being restored for practical stove usage. So long as it has the empty space inside plus a top, it can be used for flowers.
Place the stove in the spot where you would like it to be in your garden. Keeping it close to the house will keep it relatively safe, especially if your front yard is vulnerable to intruders and you do not have a fenced yard. Open the door on the side of the stove and measure the inside part using a measuring tape. This will tell you how big a pot you can fit inside. Also measure the size of the doorway to ensure you can fit the pot inside, even if it has to be entered in sideways. You can always purchase an inexpensive pot that will fit inside for any plants you already have but want to use inside the stove.
Considering the color of the antique stove you are using, choose flowers in colors that will contrast and really stand out when they are placed inside the stove. A black stove can have a combination of bright and pastel colored flowers, while a white stove will best show off bright, jewel colored flowers. A gray or green metal stove can be best complemented with pink, purple, white, peach, and orange flowers. Some ideas for flowers of a stove of a green or gray color can be petunias, pansies, nasturtiums, and cosmos.
The top of the stove does not have to remain bare; if you prefer, you can train a climbing plants to grow to the top and over the stove for a more decorative look. Asarina, trumpet vine, and morning glories are just a few flowering vines that require support that an antique stove can provide. Asarina will grow from six to ten feet long and have pretty pink, white, or purple trumpet shaped flowers on the vine. Trumpet vine flowers are red, orange, and yellow and the vine part of the plant can grow quite long, up to forty feet in length. Morning glories are beautiful in any garden and along with the other vine flowers, will attract butterflies. Plant the flowering vines at each of the four corners of the stove.
When the vines grow long enough to reach the top of the stone, drape the vine around the finial gently but do not pull the vine too tightly. Allow the vine to hang down on the opposite side of the stove freely. You can repeat this method with other flowering vines that are planted at the other corners of the stove. Include any other of your favorite flowers planted next to the stove in the ground. Your antique stove garden is now complete!
Image Credit:
Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons. “Our homes and their adornments”, by Almon Clother Varney. Detroit: C. Chilton & Co. 1884.
