Have A Green Thumb With Greenbacks To Spare

Butterfly garden stick, $1 from Goodwill.

If you're anything like me, you love getting your hands dirty in the garden. You ditch the gloves and go for bare palmfuls of dirt to plant those seeds right into the earth. And maybe--like me--you also love flaunting a little decorative flair with planters, indoor and out. 

There's nothing so fresh and so naturally gorgeous as a blooming flower or foliage contained within some cute little planter. 

Our front lawn has a new mascot. 

Or in this case, maybe not so little...

I bought this oversized handmade wooden elephant from a local flea market last year. It originally had a removable wooden rack in its body, and was designed to hold magazines. But for me, Sir Artemis Stompington (Yes, that's his name) was a fine record rack indeed.

Hand-carved wood elephant, $5 from the flea market. 

Since scoring a lot of awesome thrifted jams and therefore expanding my record collection, I realized Sir. Stompington needed to roam free... as a repurposed outdoor Petunia planter. 

First we drilled a few holes at the bottom for drainage, then we plopped him outside and  planted the flowers right in there. His wood is solid and shellacked, so he'll survive the season out in the wild. 

A collection of thrifted planters.

As for the inside, our picture window is the perfect display area for my little assortment of thrifted planters. (And yes, that's another elephant). I can't pick a favorite, but that pair of vintage owls...well they're just charming! 

I love having a few house plants and succulents here and there. They provide a nice pop of color and they really do oxygenize the room.

Vintage candy dish and heart-trimmed bowl, $2 each from Goodwill. 

I bought these two non-planter planters from Goodwill and knew immediately some succulents would do them well. A bright orange cactus for the candy dish and a waxy-leaved Peperomia plant for heart-patterned bowl. 

The trick to repurposing planters lies in the drainage issue.  Given the right sunlight and watering conditions, many plants can thrive year-round indoors. But not one of my indoor planters has holes for drainage. And this is exactly why I chose cacti and succulents. They require little water and little drainage. The root system sucks the water up and stores it, which means more creative planter options for thrifters like us. 

So the next time you see a mod little box or a kitschy mug, maybe you'll consider sticking a succulent in there. It's two green thumbs-up, thrifters!