With things like light bulbs, wine crates and even sneakers, who needs to spend money on  carefully constructed planters and window boxes.

Recycled Planter from a Tire

You don't need any plans to put this together. People are always getting rid of their car tires. Even better, head off to a farm, and ask around for a tractor tire.

Paint a couple of creative designs on your tire and start planting. For the bigger tires, you can even plant a tree inside. You may want to make a pretty flower bed with yellow daffodils or something similar with a smaller tire.

DIY Planter from a Tree Stump

If you have a tree that has fallen down, or a deserted tree stump, then this is definitely something that you can use. Get your tools out of the garage and start chipping away, so that you are hollowing out the tree.

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccaughan/4508539235

Now all you have to do is fill it in with soil and start to plant something pretty. This will look so natural and almost wild.

DIY Planter Box Using a Wine Crate

Some people go to a lot of trouble with in-depth instructions using planter box plans. At the end of the day, this is no fun, and half the time it leaves you feeling very frustrated. For an easier option, get yourself a couple of wine crates. These are perfect, and you can put anything in there. Herbs, for example will grow perfectly. Container gardening like this with vegetables always has its advantages.

Make Use of Mason Jars

There is so much that you can do with mason jars, and here once again, you will find one more useful thing that you can do.

This idea is brilliant - not only is it practical, but it adds to your home decor style as well. It is good to plant herbs in here because you can easily get to them when the time comes to cooking your favorite tomato and basil pasta.

You need a piece of wood, a couple of mason jars, depending on how many herbs you use, but it's a good idea to start with three. You will also need potting soil and pipe clamps.

Screw the pipe clamps on the board, and then screw the wooden board onto the wall. Then you add potting soil in the jars, along with the plants, put them into the clamp and fasten them up.

How about Tin Cans

These can be used in a variety of different ways, either to make vintage planters, or they can be made into something much more modern. This depends on how you go about it. You can simply use a couple of Italian tomato cans, stab holes in the bottom - and that's it. You can also use tins that you paint on yourself. If you want the more contemporary look, then go for colors like orange and purple, which can be quite striking.

Egg Shell Planters

I used to use these a lot for my seedlings when I was doing a lot of vegetable gardening. However, this also looks really good inside or outside for whatever you want to plant in there. Obviously you need something which is small, with shallow roots, but you can move them around, which is quite nice.

Use Colanders

Besides looking good, this is very practical because of all of the holes, allowing the plants to breathe, as well as being great for drainage. You can paint the colanders various colors, depending on your color scheme. Obviously you don't want anything with deep roots, but you can be fairly creative with this method.

photo credit: photobucket.com/user/herballygifted/media/IMG_3552_zps44a541bf.jpg

Use Boots, Shoes and Sneakers

This is also something that is fun to do. It is even nice to make a display somewhere. This is a great way to make use of those old hiking boots that you are not wearing anymore, or maybe the kids have grown out of their rain boots.

photo credit: flickr.com/photos/jo-h/5861107114

If you don't simply want to plonk these on the grass somewhere, then you can attach them on your fence, to add some interest or a splash of color. A lot of people put their kids boots on the fence, which really brightens things up a lot.

Recycled Lightbulbs

Yes, the lightbulb creates one of the most unique planter ideas around. This makes a nice ornament anywhere really. You can pop in a little moss with a couple of tiny shells. You can also put in some water, and grow your own basil - or just about anything that takes to growing in water fairly well.

Making Use of Concrete Blocks

These blocks are as cheap as chips. However, they don't look that great. The one thing you can do to get around that problem is to paint them. The paints, techniques and colors you use is up to you, and your color schemes. You can go bright and beautiful, or you can go more neutral. These look good placed up a driveway, and you may not even need to paint them if the plants are flowing over.

Terracotta with an Aged Look

Terracotta is fairly common and this is definitely nothing new. However, if you use your creativity and find techniques to turn these around into something that looks older than it is, they can look good. Antiquing and crackling are all things that can really look stunning  with pots like this.

Vertical Gardening

Do you live in an apartment? No problem! There is lots you can put on your balcony or even inside if you have a little sunshine coming through the drapes. A pallet garden is very easy to assemble. Just put the soil inside and start planting inside that. A shoe organizer that you hang up somewhere is also something that you can do. terracotta pots can be joined by a strong twine through the holes. This also looks good.

The Plastic Bottle Planter

Another idea using a plastic bottle.

credit: photobucket.com/user/maywong24/media/DIY/DIY-Plastic-Bottle-Hanging-Planters_zps605ffb20.jpg