20 Amazing Garden Tub Ideas (With Pictures)

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Garden tubs are used by gardeners to grow plants and also to create a relaxing facility in their backyard. Although they are 2 completely different uses, they are a great option for increasing the uniqueness of your garden. Don’t expect any attachments such as jets or showers.

However impressive your garden tub ideas may be, the ultimate purpose boils down to you having a splendid relaxation session in your backyard or creating a fancy vegetable garden insider a tun.

20 Creative Garden Tub Ideas for your Backyard (With Pictures)

We have curated a bunch of 20 attractive garden tub ideas that you can choose to include in your backyard or lawn. Keep reading for some truly magnificent options:

1. DIY Mobile Home Garden Tub Fishpond

Garden tub ideas

Difficulty Level – Intermediate

Ever thought of adding a tinge of aquatic life to your backyard? If you have an over-used or unused claw foot tub that is lying around then you could convert it to a fishpond.

You will need a recirculating pond filter and pump along with an outdoor electrical outlet suitable for water connections. You can also choose to drop in some aquatic plants and increase the activity in the garden tub.

2. DIY Garden Tub Water Pond

garden tub ideas

Difficulty Level – Easy

You can use your old bathtub and place it in the garden as an area for birdbaths. Do you live in an area with lots of beautiful birds?

Garden tub ideas like these can bring a hoard of attractive birds to your backyard every morning, that too for a refreshing bath. Adorable right?

This needs minimal equipment and you are yet rewarded with the soothing sound of the waterfall.

3. DIY Heavy-Duty Garden Tub/Tank

mobile home garden tub

Difficulty Level – Hard

Have an old-school metallic or steel garden tub in your shed? You could galvanize it yourself or purchase one of your desired size and shape.

Even better, you can easily make it into a pond with leaves floating, different kinds of fish, and aquatic plants.

This is your chance to add some marine life in your backyard and make it even more diverse.

4. DIY Hot Clawfoot Corner Garden Tub

garden tub shower combo

Difficulty Level – Hard

Rather than spending 1000s of dollars on a backyard garden tub, you can get creative with this luxurious backyard bathhouse. You will get a garden tub as well as a pergola in your backyard.

If you are not really into the whole concept of relaxing in a backyard tub, you can even grow some unique plants here.

The pergola provides shade that makes it suitable for several different plant types that grow within water.

5. DIY Country Style Hot Garden Tub

corner garden tub

Difficulty Level – Hard

Here is an old-school backyard option that uses fire-warmed rocks to provide heat. Consider this a classic example of hydrotherapy. Hydrotherapy is basically soaking yourself in naturally warm water.

This DIY project could go a long way in imparting health benefits for your entire family. You will need a garden hose (check out some garden hose reel plans), copper pipes, copper coils, and rocks.

6. Corner Garden Tub for Cooling Drinks

garden tub ideas

Difficulty Level – Easy

This requires no instructions to follow. Simply place your old/new tub in the backyard and use it to cool drinks for your backyard parties.

One can always do some fancy painting along its outer structure for imparting a catchy visual design. Consider attaching 2 chains on either side attached to a closing case.

This can even help close your “drinks storage” garden tub when not in use.

7. DIY Wood-Fired Garden Hot Tub

garden tub ideas

Difficulty Level – Hard

This is a high-end DIY project that will leave you proud at the end. This garden tub design can be used for outdoor relaxation and rejuvenation sessions.

An important part of such sessions is the aesthetic appeal and aura. What better source than soaked wood fire and the smell of wet wood?

8. DIY Off-Grid Wood-Fired Garden Hot Tub

mobile home garden tub

Difficulty Level – Intermediate

A simple 6-foot diameter stock tank is enough to be converted into a hot tub for your backyard. This garden tub is a quick-heating design and all the water circulated is because of the heat and paddle.

You will need a 50 feet copper coil that allows for faster heat transfer. Make sure you take safety measures for this DIY project as working with high pressure and heated liquids simultaneously can be dangerous.

9. DIY Quality Garden Hot Tub

garden tub shower combo

Difficulty Level – Hard

Acquiring an old hot tub with an intention to have it fixed in your backyard as a bathing or relaxation alternative comes with some repairing to do at first.

Broken cracks need to be fixed in the acrylic shelling, blowers and water pumps need to be replaced. Most importantly, leakages need to be fixed to avoid dirty water from seeping into your lawn.

Excited to create a garden tub that can be covered?

10. DIY Garden Tub as a Raised Garden Bed

corner garden tub

Difficulty Level – Easy

Been thinking of building a raised garden bed? Using the bathtub lying in your shed or garage could be a wise choice. This is a great idea to reinvent the amount of effort you need to put into gardening.

No more bending on your knees and excessive back-pain. A raised garden bed would help you plant vegetables and fruits in a new fashion altogether.

11. DIY Fancy Garden Tub Container for Plants

corner garden tub

Difficulty Level – Easy

Get some creepers and unique aquatic plants in your garden. The process was never simpler. Drop in enough mud for the roots of your plants to grow comfortably.

After that all you need to do is plant and maintain. Consider painting your garden tub yellow if you are growing sunflowers.

12. DIY Mobile Home Garden Tub

garden tub ideas

Difficulty Level – Easy

This DIY project doesn’t require you to work on the rust and chipped-off enamels. Instead, the focus lies in using the rugged and dilapidated construction to sync in beautifully with plants that take over the tub.

You will also land up using fillers such as empty glass bottles and rocks to minimize wasting money on materials to simply fill the tub.

13. DIY Clip-Together Garden Tub Aquaponics System

garden tub ideas

Difficulty Level – Hard

This garden tub idea would be a combination of creativity and environment usage at its best. Create an aquaponics system that allows fish and plans to work together to grow foods. The pond/second bathtub water would be fueled with essential nutrients. This water travel to the plant roots.

Eventually, this cleaned and oxygenated water is fed back to the pond and the cycle continues. Consider using goldfish due to their attractive bodily patterns and obviously their ability to provide nutrients to plants.

14. DIY Vegetable Garden in Garden Tub

mobile home garden tub

Difficulty Level – Intermediate

If you want to go give no-digging gardening a shot then this innovative garden tub idea can do wonders. People have succeeded in growing sweet and normal potatoes as the tubers would be enclosed.

There are several styles of no-gardening, a few of them are Lasagna Gardening, Sheet Mulching, and Straw Bale Gardening. Although this guide is more creative in many ways, you can choose as you like.

15. DIY Corner Garden Tub Pond with Stones

garden tub shower combo

Difficulty Level – Intermediate

Do all the painting you want before you start construction. This garden tub idea requires some basic knowledge of carpentry for ensuring you get the solid structure right.

You will even use newspapers around your containers with quality garden soil.

Stones will be stacked on and around this soil so the soil stays compact. This setup adapts well to hardy water plants as they can never freeze.

16. DIY Garden Color-Changing Night-Glow Bird Bath and Fountain

corner garden tub

Difficulty Level – Intermediate

So what if you don’t have a small slope or cliff in your backyard? A tree stump or piles of rocks can work for the water fountain.

As you will be working towards a glowing garden tub you will need power cords, LED lights, and most importantly a low noise fountain water pump.

17. DIY Garden Hot Tub for Football Tailgates

Garden tub ideas

Difficulty Level – Hard

If your younger days are not yet over and you have an active friend circle then this massive garden tub can turn out to be your next party spot.

You need to start to by finding a trailer and a 600+ gallon tank. Make sure you put extra focus into insulation if you want it to be a ‘hot’ tub.

18. DIY Solar Garden Hot Tub and Fountain

garden tub ideas

Difficulty Level – Hard

Most gardeners and backyard enthusiasts are on the environment-friendly side of life. How about a solar-heated hot garden tub?

No fire, no excess waste, no pollution, all this while you soak in the pleasing scent of your favorite plants in the garden.

Keep in mind, this garden tub idea involves plenty of thick stones and cement for a rigid structure.

19. DIY Wooden Exterior Solar Garden Tub

garden tub ideas

Difficulty Level – Intermediate

These few hundreds of dollars spent would definitely be a wise investment. As you can see, the garden tub in enclosed within a rectangular shaped wooden box.

You can get out and into the garden tub without getting your feet dirty. Comfort and easy maintenance of this design would be unique attributes as compared to other DIY garden tub ideas.

20. DIY Rubbermaid Single Person Garden Tub

garden tub ideas

Difficulty Level – Intermediate

This DIY tub would require quite a bit of air to keep it hot. But if you have a Rubbermaid stock tank lying around then might as well be creative than let it rot right?

Verdict

As you can see, there are plenty of garden tub ideas. Use it as a fish pond, or grow some vegetables, use it as a hot tub with or without wood, or even make it into a party spot.

Get to it before your excess materials lying around get even older.You may also want to check what Japanese Zen gardens are and how to build them.

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