Planted ladder

Here is how I made a planted ladder to add height to my flower bed along the back wall of my house.  Since my house is very tall, and boxy, I needed to be able to create height, pops of color, and visual interest.  I love the brick but it can be boring.

I had an old wooden 6' ladder that we didn't use anymore.  It didn't work for me to stand up the normal way in my flower bed, so I decided to lean it against the back of the house.  The front of the ladder is about 2' 1/2 to 3' out from the wall.

I had found some old drawers in my neighbors trash.  They were remodeling so I grabbed the old maple drawers they had thrown out.  They don't have the same handles, nor do they match in size, but they fit my ladder pretty well.

I wanted to have space between the flowers to set Junk so I decided to only add two drawers to my ladder.  I took them back off the ladder and spray painted them both inside and outside. I drilled a couple of small drainage holes in the bottom, and once dry, put them back on the ladder.

The first color I had chosen wasn't bright enough, so I painted the fronts again.

Once I had the color I wanted, I filled the drawers with miracle grow potting soil and planted them with pink and purple petunias.  I like pink or peach with purple, and I wanted the drawer color to compliment the flowers but not get overlooked either.

Once planted I started looking thru my junk and found a couple of decorative bricks, a chippy old angel, an old spring with an old croquet ball sitting on top, and added a birdhouse to the top.  I added an old mill stone and watering around the bottom, and as my perennials and annuals fill in, I hope it looks even better.

I had previously made the angel out of an old chair back (windsor style chair) and some scrap wood.  I spray painted it white, and added the lavender sign I had in my junk stash to give it more character. 

Here is my finished garden ladder.