Party in the Garden.

My husband's parents live in a turn-of-the-century home north of Seattle.  His mom grew up in the house during the '50s and '60s with her two brothers and a sister. At one point, her folks rented rooms to local college students for additional income. My mother-in-law returned to her childhood home with her husband and three kids and moved in to help her parents. The house has many rooms and all the charm you would find in a home that old. Needless to say, there is a lot of history in the house and a lot of good memories.

One thing about living in a house for so long is you end up keeping things you normally would get rid of when you move. This house is immaculate, yet many of the rooms hold memorabilia from when my husband and his siblings grew up there. My husband is always trying to bring home many of his findings when reminiscing through drawers and closets. He can't seem to help himself and has picked up old T-shirts, soccer jackets and all his old matchbox cars, including an original 1970's Evil Knievel motorcycle with the base that shoots it off into the air. (It still works perfectly and our son loves it.)

So, after a recent visit with my in-laws and to my shock and horror, I saw him cart out two full-size beer kegs he's saved since his college days at Washington  State University and put them into our car. I quickly jetted over to him and told him we were definitely not taking those home. He informed me he was going to have my Dad cut them in half with his metal cutter and recycle them into garden planters. I hated the idea - garden kegs in the garden - how aesthetically pleasing could this be?

But, as I've mentioned before, I need to back off and let some of his creative juices flow. So, I hauled these old, stinky kegs to my parent's house and asked my Dad to cut them. Well, when I saw the finished product, I kinda warmed up to the idea. My Dad left the cool Pabst Blue Ribbon wooden coin sign on the side and I started seeing the potential of these little hot beds in my garden.

I brought them home to my husband's delight and we filled them up with compost and added some banana peppers and cucumbers. It's been a slow start to the garden this year due to all the Pacific Northwest rain, but I'm happy to say, those plants in the 'garden kegs' are thriving and they look pretty cool in the garden.