A drive through Maine reveals an assortment of flowers and vegetables growing amid farm machinery or discarded plows and other farm equipment. Although these are certainly attention getting and make good use of old equipment – sometimes you landscape calls for something on a smaller scale. That’s when your creativity comes into play.
- Begin by looking around your home and yard for discarded containers that appeal to your sense of style. Old watering cans, discarded boots and shoes, teacups, old mailboxes and decorative tins all make excellent containers for planters. But, don’t limit yourself to items that already look like a planter. Think outside the box. Any item that will hold soil (or a plant pot) can be used as a planter. Think paint buckets, coffee cans and discarded or broken pottery.
- Take walk around your property for natural materials such as old tree stumps, logs and interesting shapes of wood. Don’t overlook natural stones to enhance your flower garden – but remember that when you add them to your display that the stone should be partially buried in the soil to give a natural appearance.
- Consider painting items, like buckets and pails, in a color scheme that complements your yard. While some prefer wild and wacky, others like earth tones that blend with the environment. Neither is better than the other, but whichever you choose should reflect your personal gardening style. See the accompanying slideshow for some of the creative items others have used to make planters for their yard and garden.
- Provide drainage holes in the bottom of your found containers by drilling if possible. If creating drainage holes is an issue, find an inexpensive plant pot – or use the pot from the greenhouse – and slip it into the container. Placing a rock or two under the pot prevents the bottom from sitting in water. With the right size plant pot, no one will ever guess your flowers aren’t planted directly in the planter. If the rim shows, consider covering the top with moss until your flowers conceal the rim.
- Fill the bottom of large containers – like barrels - with packing peanuts or plastic soda bottles to conserve soil. Place newspaper or other porous material over the top and add six inches of soil. Plant as usual.
Think outside the box to create garden planters.
Photo credit:
David Gallagher via Flickr
Don’t forget to visit your local Maine Greenhouse for seedlings to get your planters off to a good start.
Thanks for visiting. Until next time … Happy Gardening!
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