Today I’m going to share with you one of my cheapest, most favourite tip shopping bargains – plant stands. These ones come up time and time again purely because the way they’re originally made means they start to look like crap in fairly short order and people have no idea how to make them look nice again. The plastic coating cracks, rust sets in, then the plastic peels off even more and suddenly you’ve got the gardening equivalent of a clapped out Datsun 120Y. Clearly people went nuts for them at some time or other (I’m guessing the 80s when everything was plastic) because there’s always at least one when I make it to the tip shop.
When I dragged these three little beauties up to the tip shop counter all pretence at bargaining was immediately abandoned by the Tip Shop Goddess behind the counter.
She couldn’t control the sneer as she said, “Oh God, why would you even want them?” So all I had to do was smile/grimace apologetically and mutter something about installing a herb garden out of sight behind my garage*. I could tell she wanted to give them to me purely because I’d gone to the effort of hauling them out from the yard but she shrugged and said $10 for all three. Bonus!
Drag it along the wire and watch all that plastic flake away.
After you've got as much off as you can with the claw you’ll need to use something reasonably pointy to jab out the more resilient bits of plastic trapped in the corners. I like to use the pointy end of my spade bit from my drill set. This three tiered stand took me about 20 minutes to strip all the plastic.
Next bend anything that’s been bent back into shape.
The final step is to use Kill Rust paint in the colour of your choice (I personally always use gloss black - classic, goes with everything and plus I bought in bulk and will probably get to the bottom of the massive tin I bought right around the time the sun becomes a black hole) to paint your plant stand. I don’t bother sanding or priming – just whack it on over the top of the rusty frame and it’ll be good for another ten years. Do two coats and you might be good for 15-20. I use a very cheap brush and I don’t bother using anything on it to clean it up – I just chuck it. For economy I like to do a few things all at once – your brush might only cost $1.34 but why be wasteful?
This particular plant stand was destined to be a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law and her beau. They're mad keen cooks and they've been hankering for a kitchen garden for a while now but they rent and they’re uber busy. So a plant stand filled with pots of herbs was an ideal gift for them.
For added kook factor and to save even more $$$ you could buy a bunch of old saucepans and crock pots from the tip shop, drill some holes in the bottoms and use them for the pots. In this instance the plants were a gift and I wasn’t sure the recipients would appreciate such an interesting arrangement or get the humour** so I went for more traditional glazed pots instead.
And there you have it – plant stand revamped for under $5 and half an hour or so of your time or buy it new for $60.
* I am all for bargaining tactics to get the right price as anyone who read my first post on tip shopping would know. However it is important to not take it too far. When you know it's a bargain, then it's a bargain and you should just cough up rather than risk angering the Tip Shop God/Goddess serving you. A little bit of drama to get a great price on a special piece won't damage the relationship but if you get a reputation as a stingy bugger who constantly tries to avoid paying any cash then they will make it their mission to bend you over a barrel every time you visit. Best to make friends, pay what they're asking when it's a bargain and save your Academy Award Nomination for a moment that really deserves it.
** A kitchen garden in pots! Get it! Ha ha!
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