DIY – Make Your Own Creative Repurposed Shoe Gardens
If you need a little inspiration for your next plant container, the solution might be right at your feet … so to speak!
Don’t give your old shoes the boot. Repurpose them as decorative planters.
If you’ve only got space for a micro garden, shoes make easy planters for herbs, shallow rooted leafy vegies and succulents that all do well in small spaces.
One night someone came into this school and broke every single pot in the garden. Instead of tossing it all, the kids picked up the bits, decorated them, and piled them along with some unique shoe planters and succulents, by a tree to make a cozy home for the wild lizards that hang around the school.
When your shoes have served their purpose, why not give them a new green life as a planter? Add a few drainage holes with a screwdriver for soft soled shoes and use a drill for leather ones. If your sole already has a hole worn through, the job may be done for you! Just fill with potting mix and plant away. See below for boot-iful DIY shoe planter projects.
This spider plant looks totally at home in this comfy old boot garden.
Beaut Boots
Upcycle new or old boots into plant containers. They can add a quirky feature to your garden space.
This rustic collection of boot planters are full of colourful flowers that bring a wall space to life.
This cowboy boot has had pockets cut in the sides to make the most of vertical space. Succulents are planted in the top and herbs can cascade down the sides.
Got an old pair of work boots like these? Remove the laces, fill up with potting mix and soften the edges with trailing plants.
Creative Container Ideas: Gorgeous Gumboot Planters
Check out these clever ways to grow plants in gumboot shoe planters. They sometimes split at the back along the seam, creating a natural opening for herbs that cascade down like thyme and mint. With the extra depth, gumboots are suitable to grow a wider variety of plants.
Colourful, cute and practical! If you’re looking for inspiring ideas to get your kids into the garden, make this your first project. Let them take ownership of their own edible shoe garden. This is a fun way to recycle, add colour and a fun theme to the garden as well as maximise vertical space on a fence!
Wonderful wellington boot planters filled to the brim with edible herbs and strawberries. Love the repetition of colour with 2 pairs of boots too. They not only make practical use of vertical space but also cute feature gardens.
A new trend in floral table arrangements? This recycled gumboot planter from The Inadvertent Farmer makes a funky addition to the outdoor table.
These repurposed wellington gumboots have still got a role to play in the garden as planters.
Check out the tutorial below if you’d like to make your own gumboot planter.
I’ve made a few gumboot planters as they eventually split and give way, so they naturally have places to poke plants into! They are deep enough to make a practical & colourful addition to the garden.
Hanging Shoe Planters – A New Hanging Basket Trend?
Some creative gardeners have even repurposed their shoes into hanging planters.
In Mary’s garden, one of these crocs got cut by the lawn mower or some other equipment, so they were turned into little hanging planters!
This simple idea using a croc as a hanging planter with flowers works so well because its design has built in drainage holes!
Hairy Feet! These repurposed business shoes are comical planters hung over a fence!
When you’ve finished kicking up your heels, they can still be put to good use in your garden.
Red high heel planter filled with pansies. Colourful shoes are also a great addition to children’s gardens.
This collection of women’s shoes make practical planters for low maintenance succulents.
How to Make Your Own Shoe Planter Projects
If these creative containers have inspired to you turn a shoe into a planter, then get started below:
- 3 Easy DIY Container Gardens eBook
- Learn how to make your own vertical vegetable planter from a hanging pocket shoe organiser like the one below at Instructables.
Grow your own vertical vegetables in a hanging shoe caddy from Instructables.
So, next time your old sports shoes, boots, high heels, business shoes, gumboots, work boots or children’s shoes get a crack or hole in the sole, think of repurposing them into a novelty planter!
Want more like this? Check out Clever Plant Container Ideas and loads of inspiring photos in Repurposed Container Gardens. You’ll also find more Clever Design Ideas in the Container Gardening category.
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© Copyright Anne Gibson, The Micro Gardener 2016. https://themicrogardener.com. All rights reserved.
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Hi I have a pair of work boots for sale for only $2 which be good as pot plants so anyone is interested
Those colorful hanging boots on the fence are wonderful! How do I get them to hang and hold without tearing when they are full of soil and a plant? Thanks 🙂
Hi Susan – thanks for stopping by and your feedback. I have made quite a few of the gumboot planters and found the rubber to be fairly resilient and strong. They really aren’t very heavy unless you are using adult boots which might hold more volume and a bigger plant. I would recommend you use a lightweight potting mix such as the DIY recipe I use as it is light, fluffy and airy and won’t be as heavy and compact like pure soil. It also retains moisture well. To hang the boot planters on a fence I would suggest you try drilling two holes along the reinforced back seam – one near the top of the boot and one lower down above the sole in a line. Thread a long cable (zip) tie or some coated wire through (so it doesn’t rust) and tie onto your fence, twisting the ends in place with pliers. Hope this helps … 🙂
Cute. Wondering are these all your photos? The photos in the post, are they yours? I am particularly interested in #6 the rubber boots on the fence? You say about the photo:
“Colourful, cute and practical! If you’re looking for inspiring ideas to get your kids into the garden, make this your first project. Let them take ownership of their own edible shoe garden. This is a fun way to recycle, add colour and a fun theme to the garden as well as maximise vertical space on a fence!”
I saw that photo first on Pinterest with credit to you.
Thanks!
Hi Maureen, I have made a number of boot planters but they are planned for a future post. If you hover your mouse over the image, you’ll see the link source to Rosina’s blog. I am making two more sets of boot planters for a Garden Expo this weekend so will post them soon.
Cheers, Anne 🙂
What a great assembly of shoe planter ideas!
I stumbled upon a cowboy boot planter on clearance at Lowe’s this weekend and it’s become my new backyard treasure: http://doordiy.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/you-know-youre-a-texan-when/! Must be quite the trend now!
Love your concrete boot planter Julie! Just a thought … Concrete is high in lime which is toxic to many plants so if it’s not sealed inside, you can remove the cyclamen, water the pot thoroughly several times and allow the water to drain away each time so excess lime dissipates. The other alternative is to allow the concrete boot planter to sit outdoors in the rain for several weeks so lime can leach out before planting but you probably want it to stay planted out right now for something this pretty! Flowers are just perfect and I might have to link to this in a future repurposed planter post! There’s more info on the pros and cons of different kinds of planters at https://themicrogardener.com/choosing-a-container-the-pros-and-cons-2/ – this might assist next time you’re both debating what to buy!!
Cheers
Anne
Love the planters. Have recycled a few boots like this in my time. Make for interesting gifts…I gave my sister a thyme plant in a pair of work boots…we never have enough time!
JB
Hi Jayne – thanks for stopping by and glad you like the planters. There are certainly some creative ideas out there – and YES a totally unique gift idea!!
My latest project was reusing a colourful gumboot that had split with a trailing mint plant. Adds a quirky touch to the garden too.
Hope you enjoy some of the other clever plant container ideas on this site too!
Happy gardening!
Anne
Andrea I look forward to seeing your pic – please leave your link so other visitors can be inspired by your project too! Well done on your repurposed shoe garden!
Well I did follow one idea with the cowboy boots with the pocket cut into it for extra planting space…very clever, I knew about planting in boots but I would never have thought to cut a pocket into the lower part of the boot. It worked out great, I used nice black cowboy boots, and planted pink impatiens…what a striking colour contrast. I wanted to put a pic on my blog page with a link to your site, but thought I had better check with you first. Btw your blog rocks….
lol thanks, this will so go in with my “shoe” theme…I even have a old pair of workboots on hand and will be visiting the Goodwill store tomorrow 🙂