If they were at my house, I'd clean them up and put an ad in the paper TOMORROW! Someone is sure to find them useful. Or I would find someone to help me hoist them to the curb where they would disappear like magic.

I personally think that they are uggggglllllyyy!
;-)

Bury to the rim - plant lily pads & fish in them. ;o)

Al

I would spray paint that tub and drill some holes for drainage. Add some good potting soil with soil retention crystals if needed. Then pick up some mixed color - daisies, herbs, million bells, bulbs, etc. You want it crammed with color which will cover it up but you will still know it's a tub. I love it!

I'd either do what Al said or turn them into a bog garden. If you surround them with taller perennials to soften the edges, you won't even notice the bottom part as much.

Tracy

I think I'm going to try one more time to convice The Better Half that they need to go, and if that doesn't work, I'll start taking these other suggestions. Thanks!

When I read 'tubs' I thought I was going to see pictures of 1/2 wine barrels or something similar. Didn't realize you meant bathtubs! Ha! Yeah, I would want them gone too.
But I love the idea of planting 2-3' perennials around the edges and using the tub as a bog garden. Or maybe a variety of grasses around the outside and a pretty water lily garden in the tub.

I WISH I could find tubs like these !! There used to be a garden artisan on this site named 'Nigella' (Margaret). She built a beautiful garden room called 'the Ladies Room'. It contained a tub that was planted with water plants and was occupied by a beautiful bathing beauty (statue) named 'Fern'.

I was inspired to duplicate her ideas, but had to substitute a round fiberglass tub instead of the traditional claw-foot type.

Hope you decide to keep them and do something really creative - then share the photos with us !!
-Sprout

I think your tubs are extra valuable simply because they would make ideal self watering containers. To add to that value is the fact they would add a tremendous amount of whimsy to the garden and in my opinion whimsy is a missing ingredient from most gardens including my own. You know whimsy, it is that thing or two that says 'Hey, I am just having fun, but look! it works!"

Whimsy can be a funny statue in the garden, an old boot with a plant growing out of it, a rusty wheel barrel with plants or in your case and old tub growing stuff.

You don't even need drainage really. Type 'home made earth box' into google and you will see all sorts of plans. Ignore the specifics of all of them and just learn the basic ideas of self watering, well aerated containers.

It would cost you around $20 or less to convert that tub into an ideal growing container and I dare say nobody can find a container that large for such little money. Certainly not one that adds so much whimsy to the garden.

You couldn't even ship that tub to me (I would soooo use it) for $20 bucks. You have a piece of high art on your hands, the only question is will you take the time and the $20 bucks or so to realize what you have or will you toss it as trash?

If you want more specific instructions on how to covert it to an ideal planter for less than $20 email me via the site and I will give you details (free).

Okay, the bad news is that TBH is pretty attached to the tubs, so we're keeping them. The good news is that I want to keep them, too, since you all have given me such great ideas!

I've used Earthboxes before and *loved* them! Why didn't I think of that?

I did some research on your ideas, and found lots of info, including pictures. I'll post a couple links so you can see how pretty these could be. I don't know if I, myself, have what it takes to make these work, but I'll sure have fun trying.

I think I'll make one of these into a water garden, and the other into a homemade earthbox.

I like the idea of ornamental grasses planted around a water lily garden, maybe with some kind of "spitter" fountain. I'd especially love it if I could find a statue of a bathing beauty to put in it. Maybe I should build some rocks up to it to act as a staircase for little frogs/toads/lizards/whatever to get up to the top, and then some kind of rock table inside for them to sit on without getting *in* the water.

In the other one, I think for the time being, I'll just build up the soil level a little and plant sweet potato vines (both green and purple) along with a couple other flowering upright plants, and let it stay that way till I'm done making the water pond. Once the water tub is established, I'll revamp the dirt tub into something more creative.

I'm planning to paint the outsides of both tubs. Haven't decided yet if I'll just paint them dark green, dark red (to match the house), or maybe a faux marble effect in shades of tan (same colors in the stone of the house). I wish I could paint the inside of the tub! I'd love to make it look like the tub at the top of the page at this link:

Here is a link that might be useful: Outdoor Bath

Here's another tub garden picture:

Here is a link that might be useful: Bathtub Garden

LOL....nope....no way....not in my yard, thank you very much! I think if my husband insisted on keeping a big ol' bathtub for yard art, I'd have to drag it to the middle of the front yard and take my baths in it. I'd put up a nice little towel rack next to it.

I'm not kidding, either. ;-)

That makes it performance art.

bo berrin, I think your ideas for a home made earth box and water garden sound absolutely fantastic!

I wish I could fly on over to your place and work on the projects with you as I absolutely love the creative aspect of projects like this. Now, if you need some help with labor don't hesitate to use the old guilt trip on hubby, after all it was he who initially insisted upon keeping them! ;-)

Oooh, I just had an idea for the tub you may turn into a water garden. If you can scrounge up an old fashioned looking faucet for the tub you could use a pond pump to recirculate the pond water. The outlet could be the faucet which would create the appearance of a tub left on.

Perhaps not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it would be awesome.

I bet that would look neat with an old bathtub faucet used and the fountain.

Perhaps you could build lattice screens to "enclose" or otherwise hide them like you do with central air conditioners.

Justaguy, we must think alike! I thought about doing that very thing! I also entertained the idea of installing an old cool-looking shower head and letting the fountain run through it, but evaporation could be a bigger issue with something like that. Anybody know if that's true? If that's the case, I should probably just stick to the running faucet idea.

The tub that I want to turn into the pond already has an old faucet. The hot water knob is missing, but it would still work until I could find something better.

Monte, too bad I can't just put up a shower curtain! :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures of the Tubs And Faucet

I wanted to add another idea to the mix. I saw a photo in a magazine where a designer was hired to work some magic in a small backyard. She used one of those clawfoot tubs as an outdoor hot tub! It might not sound possible or interesting, but it was fabulous! Ever since I saw that photo, I wished I could do it. She made quite a setting for it too. I wish I could remember the magazine I saw it in..sorry.

But I would wager to bet it was a magazine out of the library and mostly what I bring home from there are Fine Gardening/Garden Design/Organic Gardening/Horticulture.

If I think of it or run across it again, I will try to remember to come back and post it.

:-)