For gardeners, finding the right look and aesthetic for the landscape of plants and flowers is often half of the fun, or trouble. There are a number of ways to shake up a traditional garden bed, and the perfect place to start might just be the containers your flowers and plants grow in.

Valerie Parrott, of Moses Lake, grew up on a small hay farm between Ephrata and Quincy, where planting flowers in whatever was lying around was just part of the norm. She fell in love with repurposed planters over time and now incorporates a wide variety of objects in her garden.

“I have from like small mop buckets from the ’60s that were metal to wash tub containers,” Parrott said.

She even described a water fountain project she is in the middle of involving an old metal chicken watering device, an oil funnel and a solar-powered fountain device she ordered online.

Parrott said she’s been gardening all her life and really enjoys finding unique items, often at estate sales or antique stores, to incorporate into her garden as planters. She really enjoys the old, galvanized metal containers and doesn’t mind a few cracks or rusted spots, either.

For her, it just adds more character. And if the bottom is rusted out, she said that just saves her the trouble of drilling drainage holes in the bottom. Proper drainage and good moisture are two keys when setting up these metal planters, she said.

“Make sure you have enough drainage, make sure you have good moisture on top with that peat moss moisture mix, and then ensure you’re not getting any plugged drainage holes,” Parrott said.

She said she starts all her new containers with a layer of packing peanuts or small plastic bottles, filling the container about a third of the way up. From there, she adds a layer of shredded cardboard around the bottles or packing peanuts before filling the rest of the bin with her dirt mix.

Parrott said she prefers using a mix of peat moss, compost and dirt to have a good moisture level that won’t dry out too quickly. She said it helps finding planting containers that have a little thinner metal walls that are easier to punch drainage holes through.

Too much peat moss or clogged drainage holes can lead to root rot if the container doesn’t drain properly. Parrott said she tells her friends when explaining her process to punch as many drainage holes as they think they’ll need then punch 10 more to be safe.

In the dry, warm summer days in the Columbia Basin, she said the metal containers can get too hot quickly and sometimes “cook the roots” of the plants if gardeners aren’t careful. Parrott said she only keeps two of her containers in complete sun and has the rest in areas that will receive good shade in the morning or afternoon.

“The ones in the sun, I make sure and have a little more peat moss in those on the top,” Parrott said. “Grow something like zinnias. I tried growing calla lilies this year and they’re getting pretty toasted, so I’ll probably stick with more of the dahlias or the zinnias in the sunny ones.”

Parrott said this is her first year trying perennials in her metal planters, as she typically only goes with annuals. She said the annuals seem to do particularly well in the metal planters, in addition to a few herbs she grows in them.

She said she primarily grows flowers and hopes to one day own her own “U-pick flower store” down the road. Parrott said she likes to grow a wide variety of flowers to figure out what grows best in our area and hopes to become a Grant County Master Gardener once the class is offered again through Washington State University.

She also sells a lot of her repurposed planters and other vintage garden decor items through a small business, called Pieces by Parrott, gathering up some items to share with friends and anyone interested a few times a year.

For Parrott, having the repurposed containers with hard water stains and banged up exteriors just added to the “country garden” aesthetic she was looking for. She said she’s always looking for something with some “character” to help add to the look of her garden at home, something unique.

“If you have one of these old troughs full of flowers, not only do I notice the flowers, but I notice the shape of the pot. I find beauty in it’s not something that’s everywhere,” Parrott said.