Six years ago, just before we moved into our last house, I spotted this outdoor cooler while we were out shopping. I thought it would look great on our patio, so I talked my husband into buying it.
We bought it, and he assembled it and stained it. We used it once or twice. It actually sucked as a cooler. The ice melted way too fast, and the drainage was inadequate. It wasn’t long before the inside of the cooler started to rust.
It sat on that patio, unused — slowly rusting and decaying. When we moved here, I couldn’t bear to part with it. I thought it could be repurposed into a planter box.
I finally made it happen today. And the weathering on it just makes it fit in more with this rustic farmhouse thing we have going on.
I found several small wood blocks in the barn, which I stacked to cover the bottom as much as I could. Drainage is still accessible this way (for whatever that’s worth, obviously), but I didn’t need as much soil to fill it. I only needed one bag of raised bed soil to fill this, and it went almost to the top.
Oh, and I removed the lid.
I had two lettuces to plant in this: red romaine and buttercrunch. That way, I don’t need to get out the rabbit fence, which would be required if I planted these in the raised beds. And if I feel like having a salad, all I need to do is step out the back door and harvest some leaves. (I have other salad ingredients in the raised beds, though not remotely ready to harvest.)
Once the lettuces are done, I will plant flowers here.
I saved the lid. The insulation piece can be removed and we can do something creative with it, I suppose. I’ve never been much of a crafty person, but moving here has stirred the creative juices.
Karyn Johnson 