Repurpose Pool Noodles For Adorable Fairy Garden Planters

As summer winds down, you may find yourself with a pool noodle problem. Perhaps you've amassed too many of these tubular foam floaties, or maybe the ones you have are starting to look worn. Whatever the case may be, you can use them to upgrade your home's outdoor spaces instead of tossing them out. For instance, it's easy to turn a pool noodle into floral decor for your backyard patio. Looking forward to decorating for autumn? Use them to create an inviting fall garland for your front porch. And if you have a porch or patio that needs a touch of whimsy, you can repurpose pool noodles as filling for the base of a fairy garden planter. 

You'll need to gather a few other materials and choose the plants you want to use, in addition to your pool noodles. Displaying your fairy garden in a space with limited light is smart because it keeps the decorative elements from fading in the sun. If you go this route, consider growing small, shade-tolerant succulents such as panda plants (Kalanchoe tomentosa) in your planter. Succulents that double as houseplants are a good choice if you want to bring your planter indoors for the winter. When choosing succulents for this DIY, pair them with specialized products like Back to the Roots organic succulent and cactus mix and Oupeng decorative gravel for succulents. Find a medium-sized terracotta pot to hold your plants, soil, and gravel, and grab a serrated knife for cutting your pool noodles. 

Collect faux moss and other fairy garden staples to create a magical scene in the pot. The Soaoo fairy garden figurines kit gives you lots of options. It includes a flower-inspired house, little tables and chairs, woodland creatures, mushrooms, and — you guessed it — fairies.

To transform your supplies into a fairy garden planter, start by cutting a foam pool noodle into pieces that are a few inches long. Place them at the bottom of your pot. In addition to reducing the amount of potting soil you'll need, the pool noodles will help keep the plants above cool. Since small succulents have shallow roots, you can fill at least half of the pot with noodle sections. Cover the foam pieces with a few inches of rocks or gravel, and then top it with potting mix. 

When the surface of the potting mix is an inch or two below the container's lip, lay out your enchanted scene. You might incorporate a small cottage, a bridge or bench, a stepping-stone path, and a welcome sign, plus characters, like little animals and sprites. Make sure to find homes for your plants as you map everything out. Then, push the figurines into the soil slightly and dig small holes for each of your succulents. Carefully insert the plants into the holes, making sure to handle their roots gently. 

Once each plant has been placed in the scene, backfill the holes with potting mix and dress up a few bare patches of soil with faux moss. You could also use extra bits of gravel to build paths for your characters or mulch your tiny succulents. Even at a small scale, gravel mulch can help regulate the moisture of the plants' soil and prevent weed seeds from sprouting in the pot. You could even add fairy lights, such as Selarlyt 200 LED waterproof solar string lights, so you can enjoy gazing at your fairy garden all night long.