Build a decorative garden in containers and pots

Potted garden with rocks    (Photo by Jane Gates)

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Whether you have plenty of gardening space or nothing more than a window sill or balcony, you can grow a garden with pots and containers. Using some creative energy, you can design these potted gardens to be wonderfully ornamental and even to become the focal point of a patio or garden. Here are some ideas of how to build a decorative  garden in containers and pots.

Shop around for some really interesting decorative pots. You can create a formal design with ordered rows of similar styled pots, sculpt your own forms with an assortment of different pots, or make a design with all the same colored or shaped pots arranged with different sizes.

Another way to make an interesting container garden is to use containers that are not pots at all. Try planting wheelbarrows, aluminum watering cans or wash tubs, buckets or half wine or beer barrels. You can even convert unlikely trash items into creative containers like old sinks, rusted pot-bellied stoves or truck tires cut in half.

Then you can add more interest by setting pots or containers at different levels. Consider supporting pots with decorative plant stands, interesting tables or get imaginative with your own supports crafted out of wood chunks, decorative slabs of rock, stacked blocks or tiles or any other interesting supports that will captivate the eye.

Make sure any containers are fitted with drainage and any space where you build your container and pot garden is set up for draining excess water and sweeping away spilled soil. Then plant your containers and pots with plants that will help your pot arrangement blend together visually. Use cascading plants to spill down the sides, sword shaped plants for some strong vertical accents and mounding plants to fill in other pots. Add color like a painting. Keep flowers and foliage in a warm or cool family, all pastels or brights or grow a garden with different flowers all of one color. 

And when you are done you can even add decor in the form of sculptures, crystals, fairies, bells, windchimes, and so many more ornamental accents.

There are many ways you can make your garden of containers and pots into something exciting. You can build walls of tall growing plants or curtains of dangling plants in hanging containers. You can even grow herbs and vegetables in your container garden. You are limited only by your imagination if you want to build a decorative garden of containers and pots.