Toilet bowls can be a good garden decoration
According to BBC, with his lavatorial garden display, a humorous and inventive resident has the villagers enthralled. The 58-year-old Andy Maddams of Manea, Cambridgeshire, repurposed two ancient toilets into plant pots.
Though “not particularly green-fingered,” he felt the first abandoned loo would make an eye-catching planter when he came across it while tidying his garden. The porcelain pair now occupies a prominent position in his front garden, which he stated served as a useful signpost for the rural village’s delivery vehicles.
“I was clearing my garden a few years back, after moving here, when I came across a virtually new unused toilet bowl,” said Mr. Maddams.
“It was in mint condition, so I didn’t want to chuck it in the skip.”
“I had a ‘lightbulb moment’—I used to have a wheelbarrow as a planter, so I thought I could do the same with the toilet. I put a conifer in it, and it looked quite nice.”
He continued: “Then a year or two later, my neighbor, Jim, was re-fitting his bathroom, and he came over to see me and gave me a second, almost identical loo. I couldn’t resist it, so now I have his and her toilets.”
“I sometimes get delivery drivers phone me when they can’t find my place, and I just mention the two toilets, and they track me down easily.”
“It’s a great way to locate my property; cyclists and runners know them very well. People go past giggling, it’s a bit of fun.”
“They are weighted down with stones, so are pretty heavy”.
When Mr. Maddams entered the local scarecrow competition two years ago, he made an effigy of Albert Einstein, the scientist, sitting on a toilet with his trousers around his ankles.
However, the day before the judging, someone stole his head, which Mr. Maddams admitted had “rather spoiled the effect”.
The use of strange objects in gardens is a focus of the Royal Horticultural Society.
Its chief horticulturist, Guy Barter, said: “Found objects can make great planters, for negligible cost and can often induce a very satisfying, startled double-take in passers-by.”
“Old drums from washing machines, wellington boots, socks, jeans, oil drums, old water tanks, airing cupboard copper cylinders cut down, even brassieres – suitably supported—as long as there is ample drainage and a suitable potting compost, free of peat, will support plants.”
“Sanitary ware is no exception, but do take the greatest care with disinfection.”
