Easy Kids’ Craft: Happy Camper Garden Planter

A few years ago, my dad bought a cute little retro camper to restore. He and my son worked together to turn it into an eye-popping beauty, my mom decorated it like a pro, and they all love take it camping throughout the summer. They had so much fun doing it together that my dad decided to buy another, and now he’s looking at a third!

It’s kind of camper madness around here, with camper gifts and camper crafts and just camper stuff everywhere – but I love every minute of it because my boy just relishes those memories with his Pop Pop, learning all the hows and whys of the restoration process. Our little lady loves it, too, since those campers feel so much like an oversized playhouse and remind her of her Grammie. Today’s easy garden craft was inspired by all the camper love – easy enough for the kids to make with a little bit of help, and perfect as a Mother’s Day gift to add a fun pop of color to any mom’s doorstep.

Happy Camper Garden Planter

What you’ll need:

• 1 oval galvanized bucket
• aqua or robin’s egg blue spray paint (outdoor)
• painter’s tape
• duct tape in silver, white and a few other colors of your choice (for pennant banners)
• one piece of twine
• scissors
• potting soil
• colorful flowers

We started out by taping off half of our bucket with painter’s tape and spray painting the bottom half blue.

Once dry, remove the tape. If you want drainage holes in your bucket, this is when you’ll want to put them in with a nail or drill. (We opted to just put pebbles and shells in the bottom this time around.)

Cut a rectangular piece of white duct tape for the door. Once in place, cut a square piece for the window. There are so many different styles of a teardrop trailer camper set-up out there, you really can’t go wrong here, so get creative! We put a shade over our window, and I think I may go back and cut scallops in it. You can also add curtains with your colored tape. We wanted a circle window on the door, so I traced a bottle cap to make it easy.

Drape a piece of twine where you want your banner to hang. Attach to the inside of your bucket with duct tape. Cut alternating colored triangles, and affix to the twine to make your banner.

Fill with potting soil and add your flowers. Easy as that!

When choosing the flowers for our planter, we naturally chose Monrovia (I’m kind of a huge fan, and our local stores are spilling over with colorful Monrovia annuals and perennials.) We tried to stick with the “thriller, filler and spiller” rule of thumb for container planting (one high plant– like a grass or spike, one colorful filler, and one that spills over the edge, like a vine or trailing flower) but our pail wasn’t quite big enough. No worries, though – we just added a coordinating pot with our “thriller” behind our camper pot so we got the same effect and kept the silvery color of the Monrovia lavender. It was just the right pairing with our camper’s colors, especially with that pop of pink from the always-welcome Gerbera daisies!

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Monrovia nurtures their plants with such care, which results in vibrant, healthy garden additions that thrive. The folks at Monrovia don’t want you to take any chances with your plants, so they offer free garden advice and suggestions on exactly what you should plant in your zone for the best results. Even for beginning gardeners, Monrovia offers a wealth of info both on their plant tags and on their website. Planting is an investment and we all have questions, but Monrovia takes the guesswork out of gardening, so all you have to do is enjoy the beauty!

SEE WHAT TO PLANT IN YOUR ZIP CODE NOW.

And what better way to do that than with a colorful garden planter right at your doorstep? Let every visitor know what happy campers you are!

Buy plants online at Monrovia.com visit your local Lowe’s Garden Center to get started!