My first ever free* DIY craft project: outdoor planter pouches!

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Yes indeedily doo, this sweet planter pouch project was free for me to make.  Hard to believe, right?  Only thing I paid for today were the plants, and gosh, those were $1.88 per 6.

planter pouches from astroturf

*Get out.  Free?!  How can all this be free?!  I will qualify that I already owned nearly all of the supplies.  If you are a crafty type person, you'll likely have nearly everything on hand too.  Or, if you're not a crafty type person, no problem!  All the supplies are either super cheap or super free! 

I can barely stand how cute these turned out, if I do say so myself!

How did this come about, you ask?  I've seen all sorts of types of pouchy planters all over the web and because I'm growing sick of our sad sad sad back yard, I thought today I'd bring at least a hint of color and fun to it.

Here's how I did it......

Supplies I used:

fence plant pouch supplies

  • outdoor carpet sample pieces (these are free at Menards so I grabbed two of each kind)
  • embroidery floss
  • random buttons/sew-on decorations
  • felt
  • needles
  • thread
  • plastic bags (such as potato or banana which already have holes, or regular shopping type but snip some holes)
  • packing peanuts
  • twine
  • plants

Now, I had every intention of buying more of the outdoor carpet like on the right side of the photo above but they were out of stock.

finished plant pouches on fence from outdoor carpet samples

Start by attaching the decorative elements, the buttons, the flower thing, making a felt flower, whatever it is you're going to use to make these things even cuter.

cute planter pouches craft

Next up, stitch together the two pieces of outdoor carpet.  I did this by hand with the embroidery floss and a simple blanket stitch, but feel free to use any kind of string-like stuff and stitch type you prefer.  Plastic thread would be cute, ribbon, twine...I mean, really, the possibilities are endless.  Do note, the outdoor carpet on the left above does tend to unravel easily, so running it through your sewing machine might not be a bad idea if you have one of those.  If not, no worries.

outdoor carpet sample plant pouches on fence

Snip some holes near the top corners next, where your twine will thread through to hang them up.  Trust me, do this now, not when they're full of plants and dirt and they're falling all over the place.

planted fence pouch

I tucked plastic bags inside filled with a few packing peanuts at the bottom.  The plastic is there to lessen the potential dirt erosion out.  The peanuts are for drainage and as filler so they wouldn't be completely filled with dirt.  Although, I may take out the peanuts and fill them completely with dirt as there isn't much in there for the plants to grow into as of right now.

outdoor carpet planter pouch for fence

Next, put in some pretty flowering plants!

Lastly, thread the twine through and hang them up!  You could thread the twine through on an earlier step; I did it last so I could figure out the heights on the fence as I went.  And uh, don't hold too many things in your hands at once as you're trimming the twine lest you cut up your finger.  Yeah, don't do that.  It hurts.

Easy peasy, silly cute, bright and fun, yeah?!

Hang 'em on a fence, on a railing, on a wall....oh my goodness, you can hang them anywhere!

Great project for the kids, if they're old enough that they won't stab each other with needles and scissors.

astroturf plant pouch
As an update, try sandwiching some landscape cloth between the two pieces to make things sturdier!

2 comments

Please no spam or links, thanks!