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DIY Tiered Planter

by April
on September 7, 2018
in Annuals, Container Gardening, Garden Projects
DIY Tiered Planter

I wanted something colorful and pretty at our back door, so I decided to make my own tiered planter out of cheap plastic planters from Wal-Mart.  The largest one on the bottom (18″ basic resin planter) was around $11.97.  There are a few things I’d do different if I were to make another of these.  I did this one about 2 1/2 years ago in April 2016.

DIY tiered planter

I am pretty sure I used an 18″ planter for the bottom and inserted a 12″ planter ($2.50) upside down.  I did this for several reasons: 1) I didn’t want to fill the entire planter with soil when I was only planting in the front part.  2) This also made that tier lighter, which would make it easier to move it if I ever wanted it somewhere else.  3) It would add some stability when stacking the other planters.  I also put another smaller planter upside down on the 2nd tier (the yellow planter).

diy tiered planter instructions

The planters I purchased at Wal-Mart were either red (like the one inside the planter above) or a rather unattractive green (in my opinion), so I decided to spray paint my 4 tiers.  I could have left the large red one as-is, but I wanted to use the same color I’d used when re-doing other planters on my back deck so they would match.

spray painting plastic planters

This is the most important thing I would do different if doing it all over.  The paint eventually started chipping, so if I did another tiered planter like this, I would most definitely use some kind of sealer over the paint to help prevent that.  Since it’s outdoors, I tend to lean toward spar urethane.

Below are some pictures from the first year of use.  Green (top) tier: fuchsia; Blue tier: petunias and impatiens; Yellow tier: 2 varieties of sweet potato vine and dracaenas.  Red tier: asparagus ferns, petunias, and ONE coleus plant.  I’m terrible about planting too close because of my impatience with things filling in the spaces.  And I had no idea that one coleus plant would get so ginormous!  😮  Within 4 months time, you can’t even tell there’s a 2nd or 3rd tier!  😐

DIY tiered planter
April 21, 2016
DIY tiered planter
May 24, 2016
coleus out of control
Sept 5, 2016

Last year wasn’t quite as extravagant.  Green tier: pink cyclamen; Blue tier: eventually planted trailing petunias; Yellow tier: volunteer viola, but pulled out & left empty for summer; Red tier: Swingtime fuchsia.  This is another thing I would do differently.  I picked trailing varieties for upper tiers, and if things were planted below, they would cover those flowers.  That’s why I left the yellow tier empty last summer.  If I were doing it again, I would definitely stick to trailing flowers on the bottom (red) tier, and use low-growing, non-trailing flowers for the yellow and blue tiers.  The green one could have a taller, upright flower in it.

tiered planter
May 4, 2017
tiered planter
July 5, 2017
tiered planter
Sept 15, 2017
tiered planter
Oct 13, 2017

Earlier this year at the end of winter and beginning of spring, I had a lot of pansies and violas left over that I’d started from seeds, so I planted them in my tiered planter.  First, I’d like to point out the chipping paint.

chipping paint on tiered planter

I wish I’d used the spar urethane to seal it.  It was much more obvious this year, and I honestly didn’t want to touch up the planter and re-do it.  I already had another project in mind to take its place, so I eventually wound up giving the tiered planter to a friend of mine.  Here are a couple of pictures of the planter with pansies and violas from this spring.

tiered planter
Feb 23, 2018
tiered planter
Apr 11, 2018

And there you have it!  The main things I would do differently would be to use spar urethane to seal it and to pick flower varieties that do not trail for the top 3 tiers.  What have you used to make a tiered planter?

plastic planters

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