First you need
an old dining chair with a push out seat as this is where the flowers
will be growing. If you haven’t got one lying around in a garage or
shed, ask around friends and family or offer a couple of dollars/pounds
for one in a junk shop, charity shop or thrift store.
If you want to
paint the chair this is best done first, although a chair showing
signs of age looks very good for this project too.
You can get a
very nice effect by painting your chair with one colour, leaving it
to dry completely, and then applying another different colour all
over. When this second coat is completely dry, lightly sand off the
second coat in the places that would naturally have received the most
wear and the first colour will show through giving a very pretty distressed
look, which you can then protect with a couple of coats of varnish.
When you have
your chair frame looking the way you like it, fix a double layer of
chicken wire where the seat used to be. A heavy duty staple gun is
ideal for this job.
Next line the
chicken wire with a good layer of pre soaked sphagnum moss as this
will be needed to stop the soil falling through the wire.
When you have
a good layer of moss in place, sit a plant pot saucer or small shallow
dish on top of it, just to retain a little of the water and stop it
dripping through quite so much. Then fill your moss lined chicken
wire with soil or compost and add your plants.
Pansies look
very good in these chairs, as does a cushion of busy lizzies. Climbing
plants such as sweet peas will wrap their tendrils around the chair
back giving another dimension to the display and a couple of variegated
ivies or other trailing plants would look splendid curling down the
legs.
Copyright 2001
Colleen Moulding
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