Creative Container Gardening: Tips & Ideas

Lots of goodies today! If you’d like to get creative with your yard display this year, I’ve put together a list to help tweak some creative container ideas for you (this is also a great way to repurpose household items that would otherwise be junked).

Next you’ll find four videos: two provide tips for container gardening that will help your potted plants do their best, and two videos show how to make your own garden containers using hypertufa (I love that stuff!).

Then you’ll find a few more ideas for creative gardening listed here on Tipnut as well as other places I’ve found on the net.

Creative Garden Pot Containers (Ideas)

Here is a list of different items you can use to make some very creative plant and flower displays, I’ve either seen these implemented or come across mention of them.

Make sure to add your favorite ideas too!

1. Work Boots (leave the toe intact or cut out for flowers to bloom out both ends)
2. Metal Buckets & Pails (these can be painted in either a solid color or with a decorative design–but plain metal works too)
3. Wicker Baskets (these can be painted)
4. Wooden Kegs/Whisky Barrels/Rain Barrels
5. Wheelbarrow
6. Old Toybox & Wooden Crates
7. Deep Roasting Pans, Stock Pots
8. Old Bicycle (I saw a yard display once that had a bicycle basket attached to the front handlebars with flowers planted inside, as well as hanging flower bags fixed across the seat)
9. Old Fashioned Baby Carriage
10. Mailbox
11. Old Chair (cut out the seat and attach a fitted container inside)
12. Dresser Drawer
13. Deep Enamelware Pots
14. Child’s Wagon (choose one that’s deep so there’s lots of soil for the plants to grow)
15. End Table (turned on its side)
16. Watering Cans
17. Hypertufa Containers (see more info below)
18. Bird Houses (large with the roof removed and a plant inside)
19. Wooden Tool Box
20. Old Fashioned Bird Cage (pot inside)
21. Hollowed Out Stumps & Logs
22. Old Wash Tubs

Container Tips

• The sky’s the limit when choosing containers but use items that have a deep space, enough to hold the necessary amount of potting soil for your plants and flowers to thrive. Once you start getting creative with your containers, you’ll be looking at “junk” in a whole new way .
• Make sure that you either drill or cut drainage holes otherwise the plants won’t do well and the roots will rot.
• For metal containers, you can line them with several thicknesses of newspaper before filling with potting soil. This will give the roots some protection from the heat.
• If you choose items that won’t survive strong winds without toppling over (like a standing bicycle), choose places to display in the yard that will provide some shelter from the wind.
• For large containers, first fill with false bottoms or recycled materials so you can save money on potting soil (also mentioned in one of the videos below).

Tips For Container Gardening

Here are two different videos offering tips for preparing plant pots and containers. I have included summary notes under each video for those who can’t view them.

• Make sure the container has a drainage hole so excess water will come out the bottom to prevent root rot.
• Bigger pots are better since they hold the water longer. To save on potting soil as well as not make the pots too heavy, try filling the bottom of the pots with recycled materials like styrofoam peanuts, crushed cans or a false bottom (you can buy these). Top with a square of weed barrier fabric before adding potting mix so the soil stays above the bottom filler materials.
• Pick a good potting soil mix that contains perlite or vermiculite for drainage as well as peatmoss to hold the moisture.
• If the potting soil you use doesn’t contain any fertilizer, add & mix in some slow release fertilizer to the potting mix before you fill the pot with plants.
• Water plants thoroughly and check the plants daily.

Three Things You Need To Know To Grow Great Containers:

• Make sure you water enough so that the water comes out the bottom of the container. This ensures that the entire container of soil is wet, not just the top.
• Feed plants at least once a week.
• Liquid Fish Emulsion is the best growth food for most container plants since it contains all the growth fertilizers plants need for superior growth.

Make Your Own Garden Pots With Hypertufa

I’ve written about hypertufa before, now here are some videos showing you how easy it is to make:

• Find forms using things like dish pans, oil pans, boxes
• Materials: Equal parts Perlite, Peat Moss, Pure Portland Cement
• Water: Slowly add water (usually slightly less than the amount of the container used for the above ingredients). Mix enough water so the mix will hold shape when making a ball.
• Pack the hypertufa into the form (first lined with plastic), about 2″ thick (smaller containers are fine with 1″ to 1 1/2″ thick).
• Make sure the container will drain well.
• Use potting mix that drains well.
• The hypertufa pots are fine to leave outside over winter since they are porous.

Hypertufa How To & Tips

• Make Hypertufa with Peat, Perlite, Portland Cement. Mix all together before adding water. You can add concrete coloring at this point (check at the hardware store).
• Build a well in the middle of the mix then add a small amount of water. Mix, slowly add more water, mix, keep adding water until you have the consistency of cottage cheese and the hypertufa mix will hold together its shape when you form into a ball.
• If you add too much water, it’s easy to fix by adding a little more peat or perlite until you get the consistency you want.
• First line the form with plastic so the pot is easy to pop out when it’s dry. Add bubble wrap if you’d like a bubble design on the outside of the pot. You can also add pieces of moss along the sides.
• Press the hypertufa into the form, start at the bottom then the sides. Pack it in tight.
• Sit for 5 to 7 days to harden, then pop the pot out of the form. Leave for another 7 to 10 days to make sure the hypertufa is dry.
• Rinse the pot with vinegar to make sure all the lime from the cement will be removed.
• Bonsais do well in hypertufa pots.

More Tips & Ideas Found On The Net

• Melanie’s Old Country Garden – Creative Containers
• Thrillers, Fillers & Spillers (tips for eye-catching containers)
• Staging a Container Plant Display
• DIY Network: The Dirt On Creative Containers *popup warning

More Creative Gardening Ideas Found On Tipnut

• Make a Big Splash with a Tiny Water Garden
• How To Make A Garden Fountain
• How To Grow Roses In Pots
• Gorgeous: How To Make A Succulent Ball
• Garden Display Project: Tipsy Pots
• How To Grow Roses In Pots
• Bubbling Urn Water Feature: Backyard Project Tutorial

One of the best things to have when container gardening is a potting bench. These make an ideal work space (which your back will surely thank you for!), here are some free plans that will help you make your own.

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