My Favorite Garden Decoration: Using Lamp Bases in the Garden

I suppose that when I say this is my favorite garden decoration, what I actually mean is that it is my favorite non-organic decoration, as my flowers are my favorite organic decoration.

This is the base to an old seventies lamp. Originally, this was part of a pair that I found in the trash. They were painted ebony and gold and were probably some suburban housewives idea of groovy interior decorating. I am guessing that their children who were moving them into a nursing home felt different (rightfully so) and the pair ended up at the curb.

That’s where I came in, tooling around the ‘hood with my little convertible, looking for interesting junk to put into my garden. Even my mother cringed when she saw these two, but I assured her that they would look great. I took a hacksaw to the lamp top and then split the pair and gave one to my neighbor. Mine got painted white, hers got painted in faux verdigris. Over the years, the paint, both the original and the added, peeled off and, year by year, the “statue” has been slowly disintegrating.

I think it adds an air of history, as if my garden that has seen grander days and we are only looking on the tail end of its grandeur (it’s a convenient fantasy for the mess I call a garden).

What is really odd is that this is not the only lamp base I have in my garden. There are actually two or three gems like this hidden around. Whether it be the decaying statue or a metal pedestal or a gaudy green glass bauble, I find that old lamp bases make for amazing garden decor.

The next time you are out on trash day or when you are making the yard sale rounds, take a close look at the junked lamps. Yeah, they suck for interior decorating purposes, but how would they look surrounded by petunias?