Since Megan shared the exciting news yesterday that plantlust.com is now shipping plants I thought it would be fun timing to share a few images I’ve been collecting of shopping cart gardens. Get it? Online shopping/shopping carts? “You have 2 items in your shopping cart, proceed to checkout or keep shopping?” — oh ya, that’s right — if you have to explain a joke it’s not funny. Anyway…
I ran across this “Opuntia in a cart” while in Los Angeles over Christmastime. It was parked in a hellstrip beside a cafe, I bet you can guess the name of the cafe.
The Opunita blooms are unlike any that I’ve seen before, so tropical looking!
I was tempted to go inside and ask about that pad laying on the ground (could I take it?). But I didn’t want them to think I’d knocked it off with that intention.
This shopping cart arrangement was done by Linda Beutler for the annual Hardy Plant Society of Oregon (HPSO) meeting last fall, she was kind enough to supply me with the image, since I didn’t manage to capture one myself.
She must have had so much fun making that first one that she did it all over again for the HPSO booth at our local Yard, Garden & Patio Show. Oh and by the way, this creation had a name: “Happiness is Buying Plants” (hence the flat of plants on the bottom of the cart) how fun is that?
Here’s another shot of that same cart, this one taken by Peter Herpst. Are you wondering about all those bottles? The HPSO does a wonderful display at the YGP Show of cuttings taken from member gardens. Since the show falls in February it’s a great opportunity to see what looks good in our gardens in the winter time. I believe there will be a similar exhibit at Hortlandia, the spring plant sale (if you live anywhere near Portland you’ll want to attend that event, because…happiness is buying plants).
Finally here’s a shot I took in the vintage market at the recent Northwest Flower and Garden Show. You might wonder what that tag hanging from it says? Maybe “NFS” or “$500″…well I can’t tell you, I wasn’t smart enough to look!
All this shopping cart fun had me wondering if this is a “thing” and I’m just not hip enough to know about it. I did a little research and found an interesting article from Oregon Public Broadcasting “Growing Mobile Gardens In Recycled Shopping Carts” — what a great idea! I also discovered movable trees in Amsterdam (here), and a story about an urban (shopping cart) farm in San Diego (here).
In addition to the photo, Linda Beutler was kind enough to share her plant list. So here are a few of the things you may have spotted in the YGP cart, which by the way is one from her “collection”…she has a shopping cart collection!