Tipsy Pots Tutorial

Tipsy Planted Pots

Ok this is so far the Cutest Coolest thing I've ever made! 

I just knew I was gonna stop traffic in front of

my house with this creation!

I have to give THANKS to Becky @ Nine is Fine

for her excellent tutorial. Yes! Nine is for 9 kids!

Please stop and visit her wonderful blog.

Here's her amazing tutorial followed by my verson:

I've made a couple of the "Tipsy Pots" now and I'll share with y'all what I've learned...
I actually saw the tipsy pots set up in my local home improvement store. They were selling a kit with a plastic rod and stand for $15.
I just choose to go a different route.

Here are the supplies that I used-
Pots (I used a 14" pot for the base and (4) 8" pots for the rest)

Potting soil (I bought a 2 cubic foot bag and used just over half of it)

Flowers (or herbs...whatever your little heart desires)

1/2" piece of steel conduit (you can use rebar too) This needs to be at least 6 feet tall)

Gotta love flowers!

I think the bag of potting soil cost me about 10 bucks at WallyMart.

Now here is the deal with the pots...

Not all pots are created equal.
If you are using the 1/2" conduit then you will need pots with a drainage hole of 1".
The ones that I bought from Walmart had drainage holes that were much smaller then the ones that I bought elsewhere.
So...

You can fix this either by using a smaller rod, like rebar OR use a grinder tool to enlarge the drainage holes.

If your drainage holes are not big enough in proportion to your metal rod, then the pots will not be able to tip enough to give you the whole "tipsy" look.

I chose the 1/2" steel conduit in a 10 foot length.
The conduit didn't even cost $2 for the entire piece.

Choose the spot for your pots (Ha! That almost rhymes).

You won't be able to move them once they are assembled.

Even up the ground so your bottom pot has a flat surface to sit on.

Take your metal rod and start pounding it into the ground.

Just be sure that there isn't any pesky pipes or natural gas lines where you are planning on putting your metal rod. Just sayin...

If you have purchased the same size pots as I did then you will need 44" left above ground on which to assemble your pots.

If you are using the conduit then it may squish down on the top when you are hammering it down into the ground.

See the little squishy part of the conduit?

We had to take a hacksaw and cut it off.

Otherwise it wouldn't have fit through the drainage holes on the pots.

Here is my conduit, hammered way down into the ground.
We have cut off the little squished down part on the top.

From the ground to the top of my rod measures 44".

Thread the rod through the bottom of your biggest pot and place it on the ground.

Fill it most of the way up with potting soil.

Be sure and put enough soil so that when you put the next pot in, it doesn't sink way down in the big pot.

Take one of your smaller pots and thread it through the metal rod.
Tip it to the side and set it down on top of the potting soil that you just placed in the big pot.
As you can see in the picture, this smaller pot will not be resting on the side of the bottom pot. The metal rod will prevent it from tipping that far.
That is totally okie dookie.

Place potting soil in the pot, leaving room for your plants.

Take your next pot and thread it through the metal rod.

The bottom of this pot will sit on the edge of the pot just underneath it.

Put potting soil in that pot too.

Then repeat the last step with your next pot.

Lather, rinse and repeat with the last pot.

Your tipsy pots should now look like this.

See how the top of the rod is just the right height?

Plant your flowers...

Water...

And enjoy!

Use your imagination!
You can use other items besides pots...
Other plants besides flowers...
Ahhhh...the possibilities!

Didn't Becky just do an amazing job at explaining!? Thanks Becky for letting me share your post with my readers.

Now I did exactly what she said and I used my IMAGINATION!
And here is what I did....
Just add paint.....

I used this sponge blotter to make polka dots

I just painted a round circle with some left over chalkboard paint

I'm too lazy for stencils so I just used chalk for the numbers.

Then painted over it!

Ta Da!

Mine isn't quite as tipsy has hers because I used a 3ft wooden dowel (25cent) at Wal-mart instead of  6ft rebar.

I even made a miniture one

Next I plan on making a few for indoors with my ivy and wandering jew plants:-)

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