27 Fun And Creative Ways To Repurpose Kid Toys Into Garden Planters And Decor

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A home with kiddos often means a home overflowing with playthings said children have grown bored of and no longer use. Sure, gathering them up and donating them to thrift stores or handing them down to family members, friends, or neighbors is a great way to keep them out of the landfill. Or, another easy step to declutter a home full of toys is to use them in the garden as planters or decor. Turn the open beds and buckets on construction toys like dump trucks and excavators into mini succulent gardens. Make "toyrariums" — terrariums full of plastic animals — with your kiddos to encourage a green thumb. Turn the wheels from a child's bike that's seen better days into a sculptural trellis or upcycle a holey wading pool into a container garden. Cover a plushy in concrete to create whimsical outdoor art.

If your kids aren't enthused about filling their old toys with dirt, ask around acquaintances or go secondhand shopping — in-store or online on sites like Facebook Marketplace — for pre-loved playthings. Whatever you get your hands on, you'll need to clean it before repurposing it, particularly if you plan to coat it in paint or other finishes before using it in the garden. You can, of course, buy toys for repurposing. Make a lot of plant markers with a 100-piece set of TMEEIHNSS Wooden Scrabble Replacement Letters. Or travel back millions of years with plastic planters crafted from a set of SUGFUT Jumbo Dinosaur Toys for about $30.

Cut the top off the dinosaur using a box cutter, revealing the hollow interior. Cut a few drainage holes underneath, too. Prime the surface — Polar All Surface Primer in Matte White costs about $22 for a pack of two — before painting the dinosaur in your favorite hue. Fill the dino with a high-quality potting soil and your favorite trailing plant or a succulent. Or forgo soil altogether and add an air plant. There's no reason you have to stick to dinosaurs. So long as the plastic toy is hollow, any creature will work.

Drill holes in the open bed of a toy dump truck or bucket of an excavator for drainage, paint it with an exterior paint if you wish, and fill it with a layer of stones, then potting mix. Amend the planting medium with bark, sand, and perlite if you're planting succulents, which dislike soggy soils, or leave it as is for other types of plants. If you'd prefer to preserve the condition of the toy vehicle, simply sit one or more plants in their planters in the open bed or bucket.

Did your childhood enjoyment of trains follow you into adulthood? Channel that passion into garden decor by setting up a disused children's train set to run in your garden. These sets are typically designed for indoor use, so create your garden railway under your patio. If you want an outdoor, uncovered garden railway, you'll need a higher quality set with weatherproof electrical components. For something a little less realistic, though arguably just as express-ive (get it?), connect a plastic toy train engine to plant pot carriages crafted from plastic soda bottles.

As with the toy construction vehicles, you can fill an old wagon with plants in pots or drill drainage holes, pour in some potting soil, and treat it like a raised bed. Wagons are typically shallow, making them perfect for hardy, shallow-rooting plants like culinary herbs, succulents and cacti, and flowering annuals. Theme the wagon for the different festive seasons by switching out the plants for seasonal favorites and adding holiday-appropriate decor — think American flags for 4th of July, pumpkins for Halloween, or a mini cut pine tree for Christmas.

Got a basketball that's lost its bounce? Cut off the top third of the ball and punch four holes in the rim and a few drainage holes in the bottom. Thread through some chain or rope and line the interior with a 10-inch Halatool Round 100% Natural Coco Coir Hanging Basket Liner. Add soil and plants, and hang your new sports-themed planter from your patio rafters. Alternatively, screw the cut-open basketball to your fence and fill it with a half-round liner to create a wall-mounted planter.

This idea couldn't be simpler, though it works best for container, patio, and balcony gardens. Round up all the plastic animal toys your kiddos have gotten bored with, rummage around in your local thrift store, or pick up a ValeforToy 54 Piece Mini Jungle Toys Set for about $10. Then, channel your inner zookeeper and distribute them around your planters ... A lion stalks a gazelle from behind a geranium bush. A giraffe nibbles the leaves of your verbena. A crocodile wallows at the edge of your duckweed-filled water feature.

A colorful baby rattle with bells — like the FPVERA Rainbow Ribbon Natural Wood Rattle or the MEYOR Wooden Rolling Bell Baby Toy, both for about $10 — transforms into a wind chime the minute you attach some twine to it and hang it from a tree branch or patio rafter. Group a few rattles together to generate even more tinkling music. Alternatively, dismantle a kid's xylophone and hang the metal keys from some sort of suspension system — even a piece of dowel wrapped in twine will do the trick.

If your kid's bike is beyond repair, remove a wheel before trashing it. (Pro tip: typically, the front wheel is easier to remove than the rear wheel.) Take the tire off the wheel so you've got just a bare metal rim and spokes. Raid your local thrift store for a set of transparent glass side plates in a nature-inspired hue — think green, amber, or sky blue. Carefully slot the plates in between the spokes, overlapping them to create a petal-like display. Hang your upcycled flower in a tree to catch the sunlight.

Whether you make tiny terrariums out of antique jars or epic landscapes in old aquariums, filling them with forgotten toys as well as plants adds an element of magic. Any type of small plastic toy works in a toyrarium, though sticking to a theme will create a more cohesive design. Place the toys and plants inside your glass container, seal it up as you would a regular terrarium, and put it in a sheltered spot outside, like on your patio table. Not fussed with terrariums? Create a fairy garden in a large, shallow planter instead.

Whirligigs reached peak popularity in 19th-century America and are now ubiquitous at state fairs, birthday parties, and 4th of July BBQs. Instead of chucking this cheap plastic toy in the trash when your child gets bored with it, set it in your lawn or next to your roses for instant garden art. It's not like it hasn't been done before. In fact, pinwheels are such common American lawn ornaments that you can even buy them specifically made for the garden. A D-GROEE Striped Pattern Whirligig costs less than $5.

There are a few ways to turn a tricycle into a planter. It's probably easiest to use it as a quirky plant stand; perch potted plants on the seat, handlebars ... Anywhere horizontal. Some tricycles have a tray on the back. Line it with sphagnum moss, fill it with soil, and grow ivy, ferns, or another favorite plant. This idea also works with kids' bicycles — plant out the basket on the front — and scooters. For other plastic ride-on toys, remove the seat to reveal the hollow interior or glue plastic planters to flat surfaces.

Looking for more stylish ways to repurpose kids' bike wheels in the garden? Make a trellis so energetic that it doubles as garden art. Connect the wheels together by the rims to create a trellis wall for growing vining plants. Alternatively, fit a wheel to the top of a tall wooden or metal pole and hang lengths of string from it to grow peas or beans up. If you're really crafty, incorporate other parts of the bicycle into the trellis — for example, turn the frame vertical and use it as a geometric base.

Kids' rubber bath toys come in all manner of animals and objects, from rubber duckies to tugboats to fish. A pack of Munchkin Baby Farm Animal Bath Toy Squirts costs about $13. To repurpose them into garden decor, cut the back of each figure and hot glue them to plastic planters or bottles cut down to size and painted white, or even old chipped coffee mugs. These planters are small but weatherproof; if you're using them outdoors, they're best for seedlings, herbs, or slow-growing succulents.

Start with an old terracotta planter that's seen better days. Cover it with E6000 Plus Multi-Purpose Clear Waterproof Glue for a bit over $11 and stick to it all the small colorful plastic, wood, or metal toys your kids have grown bored of. Think of it as a way to preserve childhood memories. You could also attach mosaic tiles to the toys themselves to create durable yard art. Ideally, choose large toys with a relatively smooth surface and few parts to ensure even coverage of tiles and grout.

While you technically can fix Play-Doh that's dried out or contaminated (depending on what's causing the contamination), do you really want to? If you choose to discard it, turn those teeny containers into cheerful seed-starting or propagating pots. Remove the lid from the Play-Doh container and cut a few drainage holes in the base. Stretch the bulb of a balloon with its neck cut off over the container, starting from the base. Paint on some polka dots, fill the pot with soil, and plant some seeds!

It might seem a little grisly, but you can snip the top off a doll's head, fill it with potting soil, and plant a trailing vine or spiky succulent inside as hair. To use the doll outside, it's best to paint it with a waterproof exterior paint. Write a punny or sweet gardening-related phrase on the painted clothing to bring the whole idea together. If a baby doll doesn't appeal, consider a styling head, like a Just Play Disney Villains Fierce 'N Fun Ursula for about $6, or search the thrift stores for vintage troll dolls.

Perhaps surprisingly, there are ways to repurpose old stuffed animals around the garden, too. The basic premise is covering a plushie with quick-dry cement, painting it, and attaching it to a planter. If you want to get really creative, make the planter yourself by wrapping rope around a ball and covering it in cement, too, or attaching a cement-covered planter to a cement base. Noticing a theme here? If you just like the idea of a stone-like teddy bear (or any other type of animal) garden sculpture, skip the planter.

Do you grow so much in your garden that you've contemplated selling it? To turn that old wooden playhouse the kids have long since grown out of into a nursery stand, remove the play features like slides and swings, lower the platform to counter height, and use some of the wood to create a rain-protecting roof. Set your new stand at the top of your driveway or near the sidewalk in your front yard and add plants, a sign with prices, and a self-service box to collect money from your seedlings.

Whether you live by the beach or have a shoreside vacation home, finding ocean-themed decor that isn't blue and white with anchors can be challenging. Turn all those brightly hued sand toys your kids have long given up on in favor of surfboards, fishing rods, or boats into simple garden art by wiring them on your fence in bold patterns or hanging them from tree branches as makeshift, rainbow-colored wind chimes. (Hint: This idea works with plush toys, too. Change up your theme seasonally as the soft toys deteriorate.)

While the Hasbro Gaming Scrabble: Disney Junior Edition you bought for about $19 was worth the price at the time, your children have since graduated to regular Scrabble. You could offer it as a hand-me-down to their cousins, or you could turn the tiles into plant markers. Make a list of the plants or seeds you wish to mark in your garden and pull out the letters you need from your pile of Scrabble tiles. Glue them vertically to any wooden stick — think paint sticks, old shutter slats, a cut-up yardstick, or jumbo craft sticks.

Get your children enthusiastic about gardening by pairing Legos playtime with plant care. Decide how big you want your plant pot to be — this is likely going to be determined by what size pot you have and how many Legos you have. Then start building walls from the bricks as you would a house, continuing until you reach your desired height. The Lego planter doesn't need a base; think of it more like hard clothing or a sleeve that you slide over the plant pot. Though if you do want one, simply cut it to size.

Wash a forgotten water or sand outdoor play table thoroughly with warm, soapy water and, once dry, prime and paint it in a hue of your choice. We love Rust-Oleum Stone Creations Spray in Pebble for a bit over $10 for some realistic outdoor decor texture. Liberally drill drainage holes across the bottom of the tray — or trays, if you have a tiered water table — and fill it with a good quality potting soil and your favorite container plants. Add glass pebbles, a miniature house, and some figurines to create a fairy garden.

Is your disused metal swing set slowly being consumed by lichen and rust? Channel that natural rustic charm into planters for your garden. Plop a planter with a flowering shrub into that toddler bucket seat. Disconnect the plank-style seats and gym rings, and hang baskets full of trailing vines from them. Secure wide wooden boards across the frame to create shelves. You can also lay the walls of a plastic playset on the ground and plant into the cutouts or dismantle a wooden playset and use the planks to build raised garden beds or a potting bench.

Take all those rubber spiders, bendy bats, and plastic scorpions you have leftover from the Halloween party you threw last weekend and turn them into spooky planters for future festive season garden decor. Glue the toys to the outside of terracotta or plastic planters using a waterproof glue like Gorilla Max Strength Construction Adhesive for under $10. Make sure the toys are lying as flat as possible against the side of the planter. Take the creepy crawly-adorned pots outside and spray paint them black, again, with a paint suitable for exterior use.

You've probably already seen regular-sized wheelbarrows planted out with flowering shrubs, so it's really not a stretch to think a child's play barrow can serve the same purpose, just in miniature. Paint the wheelbarrow if you're not a fan of the original color or there's a lot of damage to the surface. Drill a few holes in the bottom of the tray for drainage. Fill it with soil and your favorite thriller-filler-spiller combo, and wheel it into place on your lawn or patio. You can turn a vintage-style doll's stroller into a planter in the same way.

Did you ever build a log cabin using Lincoln Logs? Then you can make this DIY. Instead of using said logs, you'll stack and glue leftover plastic sticks from a fort-building kit to form the walls of a large open-top box. Make it as short or as tall as the number of plastic fort sticks you have will allow. Spray paint your creation in a hue that matches your existing balcony, porch, or patio decor. Once dry, set it in its permanent home and pop a container plant inside.

If your kid's wading pool has seen a lot of play and won't last another summer, upcycle it into a raised garden bed for your backyard. Add drainage holes to the bottom of the pool using a power drill and fill it with a good quality potting soil. Wading pools are generally shallow; whether you want to grow vegetables or ornamentals, focus on dwarf and bush varieties. You could even designate it a kid's garden and use it to teach your children all about growing plants from seed to the dinner table.