Designing a container garden allows you to explore a delightful range of colors and textures. These portable gardens provide a lush beginning to the growing season and the potential for captivating displays that can be enjoyed from the peak of summer into the cooler days of autumn.
As soon as our chilly spring begins to warm up, garden enthusiasts often feel like excited children in the plant-filled wonderlands we know as garden centers.
If you want to design your own containers for your garden, here are some ideas and plant combinations you want to try:
Choose Healthy and Full Plants
Ideally, you want to look for plants with healthy buds rather than those already in full bloom. By pinching or trimming off initial blooms on annuals, you encourage more side shoots, resulting in bushier growth.
Read Plant Tags
It’s also important to pay attention to the moisture and light requirements indicated on plant tags, as well as the maximum height and width a plant can reach.
This information helps prevent overcrowding and ensures that each plant thrives in its container.
Design for All Sides
Create container gardens that are visually appealing from all angles. This flexibility allows you to turn containers to provide struggling plants a chance to recover or replace underperforming ones.
Consider Surrounding Elements
When planning your container garden’s design, take into account your home’s style, nearby flower bed colors and textures, and the size and shape of your patio.
Assess the amount of light and exposure to wind the area receives.
Thriller, Filler, Spiller
For large planters, you can use three of a kind for each plant you design with in round containers and combinations of two of a kind for square-shaped planters. Start with a centerpiece “thriller” plant, often a tropical species with a strong shape.
Then, build a collar of bushy “filler” plants around it. You can go for coleus varieties like ‘Gays Delight’ which is known for its lime-green foliage with prominent black venation.
Trailing Plants
Incorporate trailing plants to add fullness and drama to your container garden. ‘Silver Nettle’ lamiastrum and trailing plectranthus varieties are great choices for spilling over the edges of containers. These plants work well in both sunny and shaded locations.
