by Linda Batey

Created on: June 05, 2008   Last Updated: July 08, 2008

Looking for ideas for creative plant containers? Yard sales are a great place to look for unusual containers to use for plants. Old tins, lunch boxes, baskets, bird feeders, old stove-top coffeepots, old metal pots and coffee cans can all make great plant containers. Just remember that there must be drainagepoke a hole or two in the bottom and you'll be all set.

I always thought it was strange that people would put their old shoes, some quite worn, in yard sales. I had better-looking gardening sneakers at home. Then it dawned on me that they would make unique planters! I found a cute pair of toddler saddle shoes for 25 cents at a garage sale and brought them home for my first experiment. I filled them with good potting soil and tucked in lobelia along with some long-acting fertilizer. I tied the laces into cute bows and put them on from front door step. They grew like crazy! Anyone who came to my door commented on how original they were. I had to remember to water them often, since there wasn't a lot of room in there. My aunt gave me an old work boot that she found in her shed; it was well worn, to say the least. I filled it with dirt and planted "hens and chicks" wherever I could fit a root through a hole. I leave it outside year round and it keeps coming back, year after year. The old boot sits in a spot in my flower bed that is easily seen. It, too, gets a lot of notice. My mother gave me an old pair of boots she had; black vinyl lace-up things that she used to wear in the fall before snow came. They were in pretty good shape but she didn't want them anymore. I filled them up with good potting mix and planted impatients and alyssum in them. They sit on my back porch. I have some large blue prescription bottles that I think would be cute with old-fashioned thyme spilling from them; all I have to do is drill some drainage holes in the bottom.

I've heard of using an old purse hanging from the back of a chair as a container; might be really cute with ivy or a hanging petunia coming out of it. A pair of shoes tied together, hanging over a railing, planted with lobelia would be quite a conversation piece as well. Be brave and open-minded when it comes to looking at old things with a new eye as unique plant containers; check our your basement and attic and you might be surprised to see an old wooden miter box that just calls for marigolds, or an old metal watering can that could be overflowing with bright white petunias.

Go wild and have fun in your quest to find original plant container ideas!

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