Don't Let Broken Terracotta Pots Go To Waste: Use Them For A DIY Walkway

Do you have a stack of broken terracotta pots piling up in your garage or behind your potting shed? Instead of letting them go to waste, reuse broken terracotta pots for an adorable garden hack. Gorgeous edging for your garden beds is one popular use for these pottery shards. Or you could just as easily use cracked clay planters to make a stunning DIY walkway through your yard. You simply pile all the terracotta pot pieces across a prepared path, ideally keeping them contained with some edging. Not only will this project use up all those old pots, but you might find smashing them into smaller pieces quite satisfying!

This is definitely another one of those budget-friendly DIY garden path ideas that are worth trying because you're sure to love the result. Plus, it's relatively quick and easy to create a walkway that will become a talking point in your yard. The first thing you'll want to do is prepare some space for the path. You need a relatively flat, solid base for the broken pottery shards. It's also a good idea to put in some type of edging to keep the terracotta pieces contained and define the edges of the walkway. Laying down some landscape fabric can be helpful, too. It will provide a uniform base, stop the pieces from sinking into the soil below, and block sunlight to help suppress future weed growth. Once you've prepared the pathway surface, you can move on to filling it.

There are two different ways you can go about preparing the terracotta pieces for your new garden path. The first requires you to smash up the broken pots before laying the walkway. For the second, you place the pots on the walkway and then break them up. Whether you want to prepare the shards beforehand or afterward, you'll be working outside and will need to wear eye protection and have a mallet or sledgehammer.

For the first method, wrap all your old pots in scrap fabric and lay them on a solid surface that won't be damaged by all that hammering. The fabric will help to keep all the shards together and prevent them from turning into projectiles whizzing around your garden. Then smash them with the mallet or sledgehammer. The broken pieces don't need to be uniform, and you can lay them on the prepared pathway as soon as you have a bucket full. For the second method, lay the pots and broken pieces over the prepared pathway and smash them up right where they lie. Using a steel tamper can speed up the process while leveling the surface at the same time.

Once you've covered the path in shards, no matter your chosen method, make sure the entire path is evenly filled. If you find that you're a bit short of broken terracotta pot pieces, take a trip to your local garden center to see if there are any old clay planters being thrown out. Or skip the garden store pots for a cheaper alternative that'll add a rustic touch — trusty thrift store planters. Bonus: Whenever you break a terracotta pot in the future, you can use the pieces to top up your path.