Pots break. It’s one of those sad but true facts of life. Maybe you’ve been storing them in a shed or basement and they’ve gotten jostled the wrong way. Maybe a pot in your house or garden has fallen victim to an excited dog (or even an excited gardener). Maybe it’s one of your favorites! What do you do? Even if it can’t do the same job it did when it was whole, there’s no need to throw it away. Broken flower pot gardens give new life to old pots and can make for very interesting displays. Keep reading to learn more about how to make a garden from broken pots.

Ideas for Broken Pot Planters

The key to making cracked pot gardens is realizing that not all plants need a lot of soil or water to survive. In fact, some thrive with very little. Succulents, in particular, work very well in those weird, hard to fill places that don’t hold soil very well. If one of your pots is missing a big chunk, consider filling it in with soil as best as you can and packing that soil with small succulents – they’ll probably take off. Broken flower pot gardens are a great home for moss, as well.

Those smaller broken off pieces can be used in broken pot planters, too. Sink those smaller pieces into the soil inside a bigger broken pot to create little retaining walls, making for a layered, multi-level look. You can even go further by making staircases and slides out of little broken shards to create an entire garden scene (great for use in fairy gardens) within your cracked pot.

 

Broken flower pot gardens can also use multiple pots of different sizes. An open side in one big pot can make for a window onto smaller broken pots inside, and so on. You can get an impressive layering effect with many separated plants inside one big environment this way.

Broken pottery shards can also be used in place of mulch, as stepping stones, or simply as decoration and texture in your garden.