Flowers from Cans and Favorite Garden Places #4

Back in May we were at the beach in the Seaside/Seagrove area of Florida between Destin and Panama City.  Within Seaside is a public charter school and a garden that serves both as a school garden and a community garden.  I love to walk around it every day we are there, and the students, faculty, and their community volunteer gardeners always invite me to harvest whatever I want while we are there (and I've been known to pull a weed or two if need be).

The garden is circular, with raised concrete block framed beds surrounding a center open area with benches (for teaching and demos).

A canopy shades the center area (it is Florida, after all!  Notice the cheerfully painted plastic pots, the stakes with painted flowers from cans, and the large wooden plant labels (every plant was labeled in Spanish this year).  Towards the rear is an outdoor cooking and demonstration area.  The first day we were there, there was a banner over it saying "Seaside Community School Welcomes Emeril", who evidently had been there that week.

Some of the beds are quite narrow, but abundantly planted.

Along some of the fence are colorfully painted wooden birdhouses (from Hobby Lobby or Michaels I think) -- very cute grouped together.

There is even a hydroponic garden.  But it was those tin can flowers that caught my eye.  So a while ago I decided to make some myself.  I only had one large can and several small ones.

I cut the cans, primed and used some cheapo paint from the mistake section at Lowe's, along with some other leftover paint.

I'm not super happy with the colors -- but I didn't want to waste paint I really like in case the whole thing was a flop.  I need to decide whether to go on and hang them on the fence outside, or protect them from the weather over the winter and keep them in the screen porch until spring.  I can see how this must have been a good project for a group of middle school aged kids.