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Bird bath flower bed


14 Birdbath Planter Ideas for Your Garden

Got an old or broken birdbath? Turn it into a beautiful garden planter. Have a look at these ideas to see what you can plant in a shallow birdbath using annuals, succulents, and more, or how to turn it into a rock garden or fountain.

For more galleries, also see these pictures of flower container ideas.

Make a Birdbath Planter

Concrete birdbaths are notorious for cracking. The porous material takes in moisture and busts open temperatures fluctuate. A winter deep freeze and thaw are often the breaking point.

They are also rarely designed to be safe for the birds because the water bowls are often too deep, but they do make great planters.

If you see a nice, old birdbath at a yard sale, snatch it up! If it’s cracked, the seller is often thankful to get rid of it.

Depending on your climate, you may have to put the birdbath away in storage during the cold months to prevent further winter damage.

Good planting choices include succulents, sedums, strawberries, and flowering annuals and vines.

You could also create miniature or fairy gardens with tiny plantings or insert a water-tight container and add a small circulating fountain and water garden.

I have included tips for making a birdbath planter and photos of ideas below.

5 Tips for Making a Birdbath Planter

Any birdbath can be made into a garden planter. In fact, many birdbaths are too deep for the birds to safely bathe in (they can drown) and are better used as flower planters or fairy gardens.

Just like any plant container, when making a birdbath planter, you want to consider the location (sun, rain, wind), plant choices, and growing conditions.

If you plan to add a fountain, you will also need access to an outdoor power outlet and a water-tight bowl to insert.

1 Provide Drainage

If your birdbath already has a crack in the bowl, bonus: you’ve got built-in drainage.

If not, instead of planting directly in the birdbath, consider getting a container with drainage holes that fits in the birdbath bowl and plant directly in that instead.

I found a large round plastic bowl at the thrift store and drilled holes in the bottom.

Line the birdbath bowl with stones and sit the planting container on top so the plant roots don’t get soggy.

Depending on the birdbath material, you may also be able to drill drainage holes directly in the birdbath bowl. But be careful, some will break under pressure.

Using a separate container of the same size is my top recommendation.

Related: DIY Creative Garden Planters (Upcycled)

2Choose the Right Plants

Most popular annuals like petunias, impatiens, vinca, and ornamental sweet potato vine will do fine for a season in a fairly shallow planting area if you keep up with the watering and never let them dry out.

Check your local plant nursery for annuals that grow in small containers. These generally have short roots and last for a growing season.

If you are grouping different plants together, choose plants with similar light, soil, and water requirements.

A shallow birdbath planter is also a good place to grow and propagate succulents and cacti over the summer months (for those of us in a cold climate).

You can also grow herbs and vegetables including leafy salad greens that have short roots.

The idea gallery (below) shows lots of different plant ideas.

3Use Container Potting Mix

Choose a potting mix suited to what you are planting: a good container mix for flowering annuals, or a cacti mix for succulents.

4Provide Adequate Sun

Place your birdbath in a spot that suits the sun needs of the plants. If you cannot keep up with watering on hot days, offer more shade to slow evaporation.

5Water as Needed

Keep your birdbath planter watered (not too much, not too little).

If your birdbath does not have adequate drainage, check the bowl daily and pour off excess water to avoid water-logging the plant roots.

Gallery of Birdbath Planter Ideas

1Birdbaths With Annual Flowers

This is a perfect example of a birdbath that would not work well for the birds. Most birds cannot swim and need a secure place to stand while splashing water onto themselves for bathing. While too hard for birds to navigate, this deep bowl works perfectly as a planter for annual flowers.

While trailing petunias and vines look really pretty, I also love a compact sedum planter like this next one.

Another trick is to sit a hanging basket in the birdbath. Once the flowers flow over the edge of the pot, you can’t tell they are not planted in the birdbath bowl.

2Birdbath Water Garden

Water plants (water hyacinth* for this one) and a gazing ball turn this birdbath into a container garden pond.

*a potentially invasive plant: avoid in ponds.

This post has instructions for making your own garden pond including everything you need to know about pumps, plants, and pond fish.

Solar Fountain Pump | Amazon

It’s a good idea to have some sort of recirculating pump to help keep the water clean. I have not tried solar pumps so check the reviews carefully before choosing one.

You can also line the birdbath with marbles.

3Broken Birdbath Bowl Planter

Some birdbaths crack along the sides of the bowl, others break off from their stands. Make lemonade from lemons and use the bowl as a succulent planter.

4Leaky Birdbath Planter

This is one of the most beautiful birdbath planters I have ever seen.

Barb of Our Fairfield Home and Garden converted this leaky old birdbath into a work of art. See her blog post here for specific details on the plants used.

5Birdbath Rock Garden

A few succulents, rocks, and decorative snail fill this birdbath planter. If you want something you can keep out year-round, leave out the plants or just add them in small pots that you can remove before winter.

Related: 16 DIY Succulent Projects

6Birdbath Fairy Garden

Here’s another creative by Barb of Our Fairfield Home & Garden. She found the birdbath in the garbage and brought it home for a makeover.  See her post here for details on how she did it.

Related: How to choose plants for a miniature or fairy garden

7Birdbath On A Pedestal

This one is not planted but it offers a good idea: prop a birdbath up to the height that works in your garden bed. Then plant it with something eye-popping to create a focal point.

8Miniature Rock Garden

Lynne of Sensible Gardening & Living created this miniature garden when her concrete birdbath developed a crack that could not be repaired. Visit Lynne here to read the details.

9Hypertufa Birdbath

I’m not sure of the story behind this one (I saw it on a garden tour) but it looks like the bowl was made from hypertufa and set on an old pedestal. Perhaps it was always intended to become a planter as it’s way too deep for birds. Set in the middle of the ornamental grasses, it makes a great art piece.

Related: How to Make Hypertufa Pots & Planters

10Gazing Ball Planter

Plants such as thyme (warm, dry conditions) work well in these planters.

Related: How to Make a Decorative Garden Ball

11For The Roses

Sometimes no plants are needed. This birdbath looks fine just as it is. Tuck it under a tree (or climbing rose) to keep it from filling with rain.

12Words In A Birdbath

The words on stones just don’t add an artful touch: they also keep the water shallow which is much safer for the birds.

13Succulents and Stones

Stephanie of Garden Therapy gave her entire backyard a makeover, taking her time to create a beautiful outdoor living space. Come see how this birdbath planter fits in.

14Multi-Level Fountain Birdbath

Time to level up! This birdbath is a natural for planting layers of hanging vines including sweet potato vine and ivy.

I hope you have found ideas for your garden.

Be sure to sign up for the free Empress of Dirt Creative Newsletter for fresh ideas every second Friday.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛

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Landscape Ideas for Flowers in a Birdbath Garden | Home Guides

By Sandra Carusetta

Wildlife-friendly gardens offer an added dimension of pleasure to your home gardening experience with the cheerful activity of splashing, bathing birds. Positive benefits to the community accrue as a variety of wildlife, drawn to the forage and sanctuary you provide, engenders healthy biodiversity while reducing the need for chemical interventions. A birdbath garden bed, brimming with flowers, birds and insects, becomes a lively focal point with a carefully selected variety of plants.

Birdbath Garden Basics

  1. Set up your birdbath in sheltered, dappled shade. Birds love to bathe in shallow gradually-sloping bowls with rough texture for sure footing. Showcase a birdbath in a dedicated circular, crescent or geometric flowerbed or at a wide spot in a border. You can choose the flowers surrounding the birdbath simply for their aesthetic value as long as there are trees, shrubs and plants in graduated heights -- including evergreens, berry plants, grasses and native flowers -- throughout the garden to provide shelter and forage for birds. Since leaf litter and plant debris harbor insects that birds relish, allow some areas of the yard to remain minimally tended if possible. The nectar, fruits or seeds of flowering plants also nourish your feathered visitors.

Flowering Shrubs and Perennials

  1. Clouds of fragrant, nectar-rich summer flowers on English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) shrubs make a charming birdbath backdrop in U. S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 9. The fragrant foliage and nectar-rich flowers of shrubby sage (Salvia spp.) attract birds in the same USDA hardiness zones. California natives include California blue sage (S. clevelandii), rosy-pink hummingbird sage (S. spathacea) and light-purple Santa Rosa Island sage (S. brandegeei). Common beardtongue (Penstemon barbatus), growing in USDA zones 3 through 8, sports nectar-filled white, pink, orange or scarlet flowers that hummingbirds adore. The exaggerated daisies of purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) bloom in summer, leaving autumn seeds behind to feed birds in USDA zones 3 through 8. Tough sea tomato roses (Rosa rugosa) provide a hedge of fruit and shelter for nesting birds and fragrant roses in the spring, summer and fall for the gardener in USDA zones 4 through 10.

Flowering Vines and Ground Covers

  1. Clematis (Clematis spp.) vines will scramble along the ground or grow through rosebushes or on trellises as backdrops for spectacular flowering birdbath garden displays in USDA zones 5 through 9. Surrounding your birdbath with ground-hugging creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera), will carpet the ground in spring with low mounds of foliage-obscuring red, pink, lavender or white flowers, while its solid mats of evergreen foliage remain attractive year-long in USDA zones 2 through 8. The hairy, evergreen foliage of sun roses (Helianthemum nummularium) foils masses of yellow, pink or white flowers resembling single roses in late spring. Sun roses will mound and trail over decorative rocks in a natural-looking birdbath setting in USDA zones 6 through 8.

Annual Flowers

  1. Annual flowers keep the birdbath flower bed fresh-looking, providing seasonal color mixed between immature or faded perennials. Native California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) create dazzling golden spring displays. Refined strains such as "Sunset," "Mission Bells" or "Thai Silk" offer varieties in expanded color ranges including cream, yellow and red shades. Plant petunias (Petunia x hybrida), pansies (Viola cornuta), moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora), annual sage varieties (Salvia spp. ) and other colorful annuals as they become available locally. Many annuals offer nectar or seeds for birds.

References

Resources

Writer Bio

Since 1984, Sandra Carusetta has written advertising copy and promoted custom art businesses to a worldwide clientele. Carusetta's career history includes professional florist, private cook, writer and small business owner. Carusetta has published numerous informative online articles on gardening and cooking.

Plastic garden bed for beauty, convenience and original design | Dom

Your Favorite Pond

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08/25/2022

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It doesn't take much effort to organize a beautiful modern flower garden. It will no longer be necessary to fence off flowers from the lawn and beds with complex structures. Plastic flower beds appeared in the arsenal of gardeners - small monolithic containers. It would seem that everything is very simple, but their use solves a number of problems familiar to gardeners and opens up many possibilities. nine0005

Types of plastic flower beds

Flower beds differ in shape and size. Which ones to choose depends on the specific tasks. The brand "Your Favorite Pond" offers various diamond-shaped containers (small 50x50x26 cm and large 90x90x29 cm), round containers (Vase model 100x100x30 cm), and garden flower beds (Southern model, 93x93x30 cm.) you can choose the option that best suits the overall design of the garden.

Benefits of a plastic flower bed

The flowers in it will not grow uncontrollably over the plot, as their roots are reliably isolated from the main soil. Dense plastic is not afraid of mechanical influences, therefore it will withstand the onslaught of even a powerful root system. Bulbous and tuberous plants that need to be dug up for gentle storage for the winter can be transferred to the cellar in the same container. Strong bottom and walls do not allow harmful insects such as a bear or the larvae of the May beetle to get to the plantings. Will not damage flower roots and mole. nine0005

How to use a plastic garden bed

Organize a traditional flower bed. To do this, select a suitable place, set the form on a flat surface, lay a layer of expanded clay on the bottom. If there is no expanded clay, you can make several holes in the form itself. Fill the container with soil and plant flowers. Make a water bed. It will definitely become an original decoration of the garden. In this case, it is necessary to dig a hole corresponding to the shape of the plastic container. Make a sand cushion and place a flower bed on it. Fill the space between the walls of the mold and the pit with sand. Now it's up to the design. Pour water into the container, plant aquatic plants. Install a fountain. Choose a garden fountain that matches the volume of your container. The installation of the bowl is carried out in the same way as in the case of a water garden. You can complement the picture with decorative stones. nine0005

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