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How to Make a Floating Pond Planter

Published on October 7, 2016Last updated October 9, 2021 ♛ By Melissa J. Will

This post contains affiliate links.
Read full disclosure statement here.

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Homemade floating pond planters or mini islands are a lovely way to add seasonal pops of colorful flowers to your garden pond. You can also use them to sail garden art or candles on a summer evening.

This is part of a series on fish ponds: Backyard Pond Ideas, which has pond photos, building tutorials, advice on fish, plants, and winter care, and more.

Floating pond planter.

Create a Floating Island of Beauty for Your Pond

A floating pond planter with flowers in a garden pond.

Floating pond containers, sometimes called mini islands, look beautiful gliding through garden ponds, filled with colorful flowers. You can also float candles while enjoying a summer evening.

Buy or Make

These floating containers are available in shops or you can make your own. There are several styles and sizes here on Amazon if you want to get ideas.

I tried making them several different ways and finally opted for the simplest way because it worked so nicely in my pond.

Note of Caution
Many plants have some level of toxicity if consumed by humans or animals including fish. Before adding any plants to your pond, be sure they will not be harmful to your pond fish.

Watch How It’s Made


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Materials

This is what you need to make one floating pond planter.

  • (1) pool woggle or noodle (long enough to fit around the top of your plastic pot). Be sure the noodle is hollow inside
  • (1) black, plastic flower pot with drainage holes
  • (1) piece of 16-gauge galvanized steel wire (long enough to fit around the top of your plastic pot plus 6 inches)
  • Waterproof tape (10-inch piece)
  • Landscape fabric – enough to wrap your woggle with some overlap (12 inches x cut woggle length + 6 inches)
  • Small stones in a plastic food bag (enough to fill the bottom of the black, plastic pot)
  • Flower pot slightly smaller than black, plastic flower pot (so it will fit inside)
  • Flowers, garden art, or lanterns and candles

Tools

  • Pliers and wire cutter
  • Serrated knife, scissors, or tiny saw to cut woggle (they are very easy to cut)

1Make Ring

Make a floating ring with the pool noodle, wire, and waterproof tape.

Making a foam ring.
Make a floating ring from a pool noodle, wire, and duct tape
  • Cut the noodle to fit around the black, plastic pot, just under the top lip.
Attaching foam ring around flower pot.
Make the ring fit your container
  • Cut a piece of 16-gauge wire the length of your noodle piece plus six inches.
    You will also need a piece of landscape fabric this length x 12 inches deep.
Wire threaded through pool noodle.
Pool noodle with wire threaded through it
  • Form a small loop on one end of the wire and thread it through the entire noodle.
  • Bring the two noodles ends together as closely as possible and join the wire ends, forming a ring.
  • Clip off any excess wire.
Treading wire through foam.
Bend the wire at each end to close the ring
  • Cover the noodle ends in waterproof tape, covering the area where you joined the wire.
Taping foam ring.
Cover the join with duct tape

Homemade butterfly feeder hanging from a tree branch in the garden.

Related: Make a Water Feeder for Butterflies and Bees
Easy project, much-used by wild things.


2Wrap Ring

Wrap the noodle ring in landscape fabric.

Wrapping landscape fabric around foam ring.
Wrap ring with landscape fabric

3Insert Pot

Insert the black, plastic pot, slide the covered ring up, just below the lip of the pot, and turn the whole thing over.

Inserting flower pot.
Insert flowerpot

Ferns in galvanized containers in the garden.

Related: 40 Unique Container Gardening Ideas


4Tuck Fabric

Tuck the fabric in nice and tight, all around the pot.

Stop at this step if you want a fancy hat instead. 🙂

Inserting landscape fabric.
Tuck fabric around ring

5Add Stones

Insert a small bag of stones to weigh down the bottom of the pot.

Pebbles in bag.
Add bag of stones for stability

Mini patio water garden with faucet and water lily.

Related: Create a Mini Container Pond with Water Plants & Fountain


6Add Flowers

Add potted flowers, garden art, lanterns, candles, or whatever you like.

As mentioned, you want to be mindful of plants that could be toxic to pond fish, not just from these containers but anything growing in your garden that could blow into the pond.

Also, the inserted flower pot can be housed in a thick plastic bag if you’re using plants that do not like their roots constantly wet. Many annuals, though, are fine with this.

If your pond is really large, you can attach a leash to the floating planter to make it easier to pull it back to shore. For smaller ponds like mine, a bamboo stick works fine.

Inserting flower pot.
Sit second flowerpot inside

In the one pictured below, I added a berry wreath, pickle dish, and a votive candle.

Planter floating in garden pond.
Candle and décor floating in pond

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Surprise Frog Taxi

After adding a few of these to  my pond, I discovered that frogs love them too! They jump into the planters and ride around all day, sunbathing and napping. It’s so sweet!

Frog riding in a floating garden pond planter.
The frog loves to take rides

Want frogs in your pond? This has tips on how to attract frogs and toads and keep them thriving year after year.

Floating pond planter.
Floating pond planter in pond

Small pond form ready to install in backyard.

Related: Advice For Starting a Backyard Pond (& Mistakes to Avoid)


Resources

Empress of Dirt

FREE TIP SHEET

DIY Floating Pond Planter

Includes the materials list and basic instructions from this article.

A floating pond planter with flowers in a garden pond.
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This project is included in this ebook:

Ebook

Garden Art Projects & Ideas book cover

25 Garden Art Projects & Ideas

by Melissa J. Will

Grab the top garden art DIY projects and tips from Empress of Dirt

About This Ebook | Visit Ebook Shop

This ebook is a digital file (PDF format) you save to your device. It is not a physical product.

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~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛

A floating pond planter with flowers in a garden pond.
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Melissa J. Will - Empress of DirtWelcome!
I’m Melissa J. Will a.k.a. the Empress of Dirt (Ontario, Canada).
Join me as I share creative + frugal home & garden ideas with a dash of humor.
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