Gardening for the season: Make a Chair Planter

If you’re like us, you get all excited about the first shoots of spring, buy your new perennials and then your annuals. You dig and deadhead in your garden like a fiend for a couple of months, then run out of steam.

By the time summer heat sets in, we’re in a gardening slump, perfectly happy to leave the landscape to its own devices. Even a bunny chewing the lilies off to the roots is barely enough to get us outside. This year, however, we’ve vowed to make the most of the entire season and we’re inviting you to join us.

For the next few weeks, we’ll be posting projects and ideas to get you excited again about summer and the beauty that is your personal landscape.

At this time of summer, whether through seasonal change, weather extremes, or just plain neglect, holes in your landscaping tend to pop up in the most undesirable places. Fill those unsightly spots quickly with containers of flowering annuals or plants with colorful foliage. Try elevating pots here and there for a visually appealing composition or inject some character into the garden with repurposed containers like this old dining room chair planter. Here’s how to make your own.

Gather your materials

• Old chair
• Screwdriver or jigsaw
• Primer and paint
• Clear acrylic sealer
• Poultry wire
• Staple gun and staples
• Spanish moss
• Potting soil
• Trowel
• Plants

The chair is going to be out in the elements and will suffer the consequences, so only choose an old wooden dining chair that has no sentimental value.

Using the screwdriver, remove the seat from the chair frame. Or, if your chair has a solid wood seat, use the jigsaw to cut a large hole in the seat.

Prime and paint the chair frame, if desired. When dry, finish with a clear acrylic sealer.

Form a bowl shape from poultry wire and staple it to the inside of the seat frame to create your chair planter.

Line the poultry wire with Spanish moss and fill with potting soil.

Plant colorful annuals in the soil. Include tall foliage in the back, mounding plants in the center, and some trailing plants around the perimeter. Tuck in moss to soften the edges of the chair seat. Water well.

Place the chair planter in a spot where its character can be appreciated.

How do you add individuality to your garden? Let us know in the comments below or share on our Facebook page.

Photography by Sarah Norton

© Caruth Studio