Decorate a plant pot

Activity

Create decorative plant pots to enhance your school environment or sell at fundraising events.

Learning objectives

Select from and use a range of materials to create products
Create and compare objects for a specific task

Preparation

Have a look at other plants growing in pots and select which plants you are going to grow. This will influence the size of pot and its decorative colour scheme.

Equipment

Terracotta or plastic pots
A selection of recycled containers such as metal cans or buckets if you wish to use them
PVA glue, paint, old gardening magazines, twine, paint brushes or marker pens
If using mosaics - pebbles or tiles and adhesive

Step by step

Choose the pot or recycled container you wish to decorate. It could be a terracotta or plastic plant pot. Ensure that it has drainage holes.
Think about the surface of the pot and how you are going to decorate it. Terracotta pots have absorbent surfaces and can be decorated with marker pens and paint. Use blackboard paint so that the name of the plant or a greeting can be written in chalk.
Plastic surfaces may be better for decoupage. Cut up old gardening magazines or catalogues and cover the surface of the pot with the pictures using PVA glue. Finally use the PVA glue as a varnish to seal the pictures.
Other ideas include using mosaic tiles or pebbles to cover the pot or winding garden twine or fabric around the pots. Terracotta pots are probably best for this purpose.

Hints & tips

It is a good idea to plant up decorated pots with plants that are going to grow in them for some time. If you plant them with seedlings they would need to be potted on and the decorated pot may not be a suitable size.