I have a thing about galvanized watering cans. I use them almost every day in my vegetable garden. The watering cans are immensely useful for distributing stored rainwater and they count as weight lifting.

Imagine my delight when I visited Architectural Salvage in San Diego a few years ago. The owner was traveling in Eastern Europe and shipped back to San Diego a container of watering cans. As I stood in front of the shelves and carts of watering cans, I pondered the varied designs; thought about the hands that had used them, and the gardens and farms they nurtured.

I have four watering cans and each has a particular usefulness and a story.

The smallest one on the right is easy to manage when I have containers on the patio to water. Next to it, a diffuser on the spout of the can gently sprinkles seedlings and young plants. When I want to move a large volume of water quickly, say to revive a wilting artichoke plant, I grab the can without the diffuser. And there is a story about the long-necked watering can on the far left.

My next door neighbor, knowing my love of gardening, brought this unique, oval watering can back to me from Germany. This one is my favorite. It is perfectly balanced, easily distributing a large volume of water with a gentle sprinkle.. The long neck lets me reach across the raised bed or to a perennial at the back of the border. My husband keeps it usable with Bondo from time to time.

In the winter with almost 300 gallons of rainwater “harvested” from the galvanized garage roof, the watering cans are pressed into service to irrigate my winter garden vegetables.

You may also enjoy reading an earlier post, Favorite Garden Tools—Watering Tools.

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