Welcome to another Wacky Workshops project – how to make a turtle planter.

World Turtle Day is celebrated on May 23 each year to raise awareness about the plight and importance of those wonderful creatures.

Did you read my post, A Tantalising Turtle Tale to Add Magic to Your Day?

To celebrate and to honour turtles I’m going to show you how to make a really sweet turtle planter.

HOW TO MAKE A TURTLE PLANTER

MATERIALS

• Hanging plant basket with coconut liner
• Four small terracotta pots – the size will be determined by the size of your hanging basket. These pots form the legs, so hold them near the hanging basket to gauge the size you need.
• Four washers
• Potting soil
• Chicken wire
• Wire
• Pliers
• Plant liner or plastic – to contain the soil (I used part of a reusable shopping bag)
• Sphagnum moss
• Assorted plants – succulents work best
• Moss (optional)
• Nature pods

METHOD

• Fill the hanging pot with soil.

• Cover with the plant liner – you may need to trim this so it fits nicely over the basket.
• Cover the liner with chicken wire and use the wire to secure this in place by threading it through the chicken wire and the basket.

• Fashion a small tail and head from the chicken wire, fill with sphagnum moss and secure to each side of the top of the basket.
• Cut a length of wire and thread one end through a washer.
• Thread both ends of the wire through the hole in the terracotta pot, going through from the inside of the pot.
• Twist the wire around the chicken wire to secure the ‘leg’ in place. Repeat with the other pots. NOTE: The two back legs should be close together at the back and the two front legs, close together at the front.

• Turn your turtle over so that he is standing on the terracotta pot legs.

• Now that you have your basic turtle shape, the fun begins.
• Use a knife to cut slits in the coconut liner between each wire section of the hanging basket.
• Plant different succulents in each section.
• I opted to use live moss to cover the head and tail, which is optional.
• I also glued sphagnum moss to the legs and used the nature pods to form eyes.

This was such a fun project. I can’t wait to see what my turtle Lao Mai (Samoan for ‘turtle’) will look like when the plants in his ‘shell’ have grown more.

Be sure to share this project. Follow me on Pinterest for more fun craft projects.

Happy crafting and have a gleeful week, Tamuria.