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Geraniums spill out of a kettle on someone's porch. A tractor tire encircles petunias next to a barn.

American cottage gardens recycle household items out to the yard, according to Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center folk art teacher Ruth Mygatt Perrine.

"It's a tradition that's very old in gardens," says the artist, who is working with students to beautify a BRJCC play area and come up with ideas for their own yards.

"One woman in the Wednesday class [that started last month] brought pieces of coral to run her water feature through," she says.

Fourteen registered students are sculpting fountains for their backyards and balconies, modeling them out of clay, and studying the mechanics of pumping water.

Practicality is one of Perrine's reasons for reusing old treasures, and finding creative ways to save money.

"Art students are poor," says the teacher and owner of Oakland's Landscape Artifacts, who received a master of fine arts degree, cum laude, from California College of Arts and Crafts and also studied at Merritt Horticulture Culture. She also is a watercolor artist and has exhibited throughout the Bay Area.

"I didn't want my students necessarily to go to an art supply store and buy tubes of paint," Perrine says. "They didn't have to spend $50 for sable brushes. I'm telling them to go to a drugstore to buy tongue depressors" to use for modeling clay, and to sailboat shops to purchase canvas on which to paint.

The resulting work, to Perrine's eye, has "a hand-hewn appeal."

In addition to their personal projects, Perrine and her students are planning to spruce up a 7,400 square foot BRJCC play area, which serves 175 children ages 5 to 12 enrolled in BRJCC programs.

Among their ideas:

*A garden mural mounted onto the 8-by-10-foot concrete wall lining the basketball court to camouflage the chipped yellow paint.

*Flower pots mosaicked with rhinestones and pearls from old costume jewelry.

*Sculptures in the shapes of "musical instruments kids could blow," Perrine suggests.

One student is designing a bird feeder comprised of a platform attached to a pole onto which a bagel could be fitted for blue jays and sparrows to peck at.

"A bagel bird feeder! That's a great idea!" says Perrine, who teaches a similar class to frail and handicapped elders at Oakland's McClure Convalescent Hospital.

BRJCC Director Judy Wolff-Bolton eagerly anticipates the enhancements Perrine and her students will provide for the grounds surrounding the 1915 California Mission Revival-style building of beige stucco.

The yard got a major overhaul five years ago at a cost of $80,000. Workers took out existing structures, leveled the land and added drainage, fences and the basketball court. They also planted a lawn the children have since worn down to bare dirt.

"The grass didn't stand up to the kids," says Wolff-Bolton. A committee is forming to look into what type of ground cover might hold up better.

"Ruth's will complement other improvements" the center plans to make in the play area, she says, "but particularly, to make it more kid-durable."