10 Surprising things you can make into flowerpots

Anyone can go to the store and buy a flowerpot. (Yawn.) What if you upcycled everyday items into one-of-a-kind planters instead? Here are 10 ideas to spark your creativity.

Mount an assortment of rain boots on your garden fence and fill them with assorted blooms. As your kids outgrow their boots, keep adding to the collection.

Colanders aren’t just for straining spaghetti anymore. Grab an assortment of strainers at the thrift store and plant your favorite flowers or succulents. Bonus: The holes are perfect for easy drainage.

Give your weathered old wood or metal toolbox a new lease on life as a rustic flowerpot or planter. Similar toolboxes are easy to find at garage sales or flea markets.

Have an old bike that’s seen better days? Turn it into garden art by filling its basket with big, bold blooms. Doreen from Hymns and Verses even added a “fun” banner to her vintage Schwinn, and says this is one of her very favorite projects.

Old tires and a few cans of spray paint are all you need to create this funky flower garden. Check out the blog Lemon, Bean and Things for the full tutorial.

If you’re into funky junk, these mailbox flower boxes would be perfect for your front porch. Junk entrepreneur Ki (rhymes with “Hi”) Nassauer attached old mailboxes to heavy wood blocks and filled the bottom of the mailboxes with wood to support the potted geraniums.

A simple stencil turns an old watering can into a stylish spot to park tulips or your favorite spring blooms.

Cement cinder blocks become a modern flower bed when overlapped and filled with an assortment of plants, flowers or sweet little succulents.

Stephanie Rose (great name for a gardening blogger) snapped a pic of this barbecue grill-turned-flowerpot as part of her “Spotted” series. Click through to see more garden eye candy (think bicycle wheel trellis and DIY rain chain) she’s spotted while out and about.

When blogger Brooke Schaefer’s old apple tree fell down, she had the trunk cut up and turned the hollow log chunks into adorable planters.

More garden inspiration

15 Ridiculously cool tree houses
20 Reasons you need a garden gnome
5 Plants for small outdoor spaces