We have a breezeway between our house and the garage where we have outdoor wrought iron patio furniture that is really nice but it's not the best place to sit until early evening until the sun goes down. Plus you have to drag all the cushions in/out when it threatens to rain. A pain in the you know where! I have many container pots. Does anybody have any ideas of plant stands that one could use to elevate some of the smaller pots in a grouping, that would look nice, like pedestals. I used an old bird bath that was cracked this summer for planting portulaca and I have another very heavy and beautiful birdbath that I was thinking about using some floating candles in at night(citronella, of course)or planting it is cactus or succulents, but it is solid concrete and there's no way we could drill for drainage holes to use as a planter, so the logical solution would be to use it to hold water and the floating candles. Of course, the floating candles would have to be taken in out of the sun to keep from melting. The bird bath is made into two separate pieces, the stand, and the bowl. It takes two of us to lift just the bowl to empty the water out or to clean it. I've got plans for an inside pedestal, wondering if I couldn't use it for pressure treated lumber for the outdoors and use exterior paint on it.
Crafty ideas for plant stands
Pippi, what about some inexpensive stands from your local big-box store? I have a 3-tiered stand that has held up well and was pretty inexpensive. Has held up well and sits out in the elements even through our winters. I also just purchased some folding willow/twig stands on sale at our local nursery (only $10. each).
Or, why not look at your local thrift store for inexpensive stands or tables?
Re birdbath, I've had people tell me they used them as planters without drilling holes by mounding the soil up in a hill so excess water did not accumulate. Obviously, the hill planting would be suitable for succulents or other drought tolerant plants.
Thrift stores are a great place to find stands. Also used building material stores. I hit garage sales. Small tables, stools and even large wastebaskets turned upside down and are great, you can even spray paint or wrap bamboo fencing around milk crates.
When we cut down a tree in our side yard I used pieces of the trunk as plant stands. You can cut them for whatever height you want (caution, these are heavy and not easily moved around).
When my bird bath bowl cracked, I used the base for a stand - worked great.
I saw this but haven't tried it yet. - It is magazines. Not sure how strong it would be.
http://greenupgrader.com/3706/recycled-magazine-plant-stand-easy-diy/
When I was a kid (back before the dinasours all died off) our neighbor used to hang oven racks and cooling racks from wires and ropes in trees and put pots on them. I guess macrame hadn't been invented then. lol
Pic of a stand made out of a tomato cage.
This message was edited Feb 2, 2011 11:16 PM
Thanks for all the ideas..Love that tomato cage stand..clever idea and you have a place for 3 pots. Usually you see tomato cages just in aluminun color...did you paint it white?
The bird bath that I planted portulaca in last year is all in one piece. Hey, they survived and were beautiful. I painted that a terracotta color and have a picture out of a gardening magazine of one painted a royal blue with cascading flowers in it. That's in the back of my mind this year. Hey, each year, paint it a different color to blend in with the flowers planted around it. Variety is the spice of life! LOL!
I have seen a garden that displayed their plants stadium style. Those in the back were highest, then medium. then small. The way they did this was to use the empty clay pots she had and the black plastic pots some of her plants ahd been shipped in etc turned upside down. There are probalby many different ways to do this. If the bottom of the plants are sheilded by the plants in front of them then I suppose you can really use anything that will not rot. Large tin cans, chuncks of wood, etc.
Here's a link and the Fine Gardening article about staging plants. I love their ideas. Scroll down for drawings of how they did it:
http://www.finegardening.com/design/articles/staging-container-plant-display.aspx
Pirl..Wished this gardener lived near me and was my friend! Oh, that is beautiful but he has a lot more room than I have to work with. That really does give me some inspiration and some ideas. Not sure if I have the right light requirements for it though. The area I wanted to dress up is my breezeway and it gets the hot afternoon sun until about 5-6 pm. I'm going to have to think more about this..if I decide which plants will take the hot sun and arrange them, thinking color and texture, I might can pull it off to a smaller scale. I have 2 friends that could help me pull it off(B and J) I keep telling them they should start their own business. B has a horticultural degree and a keen eye and plant knowledge. I will bookmark this site. Thanks!
This would make a good subject for a thread of its own. What do you think it should be named? Maybe there are more gardeners besides me that might be interested.
How about, 'Staging Plants'?
You can also check around at yard sales and thrift shops for baker's racks. Tallest plants will have to take the top shelf as I found out after I bought one at a garden gift shop.
If you do start a thread, and I'd love it, please post a link here. Thanks!
How do I start that thread? Just post it separately? I'm computer challenged. We've got this nice sunroom but hubby keeps the miniblinds closed all day because of the glare on tv and his eyes. I can't stand to be closed up. The previous owner installed carpet over the concrete floor when he replaced the carpet to out the house on the market 6 yrs. ago. It's light beige throughout the entire house and it gets dirty so easy. I want to put tile on the floor sort of like you have and take the kitchen table/chairs out of there and find some furniture that I can have a place to sit besides in the kitchen chairs, while he sits in his recliner. He thinks it will be too cold with tile floors but there is baseboard heat in all the rooms in this house and we can always put down a room size rug leaving some of the tile floor exposed on all sides. I have a shelf full of birdhouses over two of the large windows in the room and there are plant hooks already in the ceiling from previous own where I could use for some hanging plants. I could just picture an asparagus fern hanging there. I love Baker's racks. I could even implement the bird houses along with house plants there, couldn't I?
Yes, you could do as you please. I have a small rug in my porch as well.
If you tile the floor could you bring in some of the furniture you bought and now are thinking of selling? Even just two chairs and the coffee table might make a nice relaxing spot for you to enjoy your plants.
Tell hubby it's bad feng shui to keep the blinds shut - LOL!
Pirl - I have three bakers racks. I picked them all up at yard sales. I use one as a potting bench and the other two to stage plants. . I love them.
I love the look of them! If you have photos please post them. We'd all love to see.
You could enter a photo of the one you use for a potting bench in the fall County Fair Photo Contest. That would be fun.
A girl friend of mine once painted her basement floor with two sponges. It was in a brick pattern and she sealed it with something that was matt finish. It looked like real bricks and it looked great. She put a area rug over part of it (she is a haridresser and she worked in her basement)
How timely!!!!!!!! A flooring man is on his way over today to measure two rooms but I really wanted the look of brick so maybe I should consider what your friend did.