Ideas for a Bird Cage Planter
Last summer, I found a bird cage at a flea market for only $5 and I brought it home to plant. I thought about repainting it but I like the aged look for a bird cage planter. It was set aside until this winter, when it became one of my indoor projects.
I don’t plan to hang it – I have pillar on the front porch of my house which it will sit on. The house is mint green with purple accents, so naturally, I was leaning towards long, hanging plants that could spill out the sides and down the pillar. I have a couple pots of tradescantia (formerly known as “wandering Jew”) already, and that seemed like a natural fit to start with.
The Original Plan
Initially, I thought I’d just put this purple pot in a plastic tray, fill the tray with soil and then place this purple pot in the center, planting something else around the edges. But that plan accidentally lead to an even better idea.
The cage, as you see, is a cylinder. The deep plastic drip tray I bought in the same diameter has a lip on it – and won’t fit down inside. Whoops!
My double-decker bird cage planter idea came from that realization!
A Hot Tip
I used the hot tip of my glue gun to melt large holes in the tray. It worked pretty well and it’s easier to use a nail to poke through without bending or cracking the tray.
I wish I had learned this trick sooner.
My Color Scheme
I bought a plant called a turtle vine that has similar green and purple colors. It’s a succulent, so I picked a soil mix accordingly, lightly moistened the soil and planted the turtle vine in the center. This particular plant will root across the surface of the soil, and then climb out the sides of the cage and hang.
Pivoting the Plan
Next, I lifted the tray with the turtle vine out, and worked on the second layer.
What I realized at this point is that the tray extended too far down to also use my pretty purple pot on the bottom. Darn. So I changed direction again, this time putting the tradescantia into a shorter pot, with a plastic tray under it.
It’s still a little tight but it should work because the tradescantia will grow outwards.
The bird cage came with this fun little wire bird which I placed in the top layer. My hope is that the turtle vine will grow up and around it.
And there you have it – a double layer bird cage planter!
These two plants will grow out and down which will make them hard to remove. But they both root beautifully in water. So, in the fall, I will take fresh cuttings and root them, keep the cuttings growing indoors, and replant with fresh soil again in the spring.
Be sure to follow me on social so you can see how it grows through the year!
