Front Porch Planters

This is my front porch. Not really a porch by Southern standards ;-)but that’s okay, we don’t hang out here much. I won’t be hanging a swing or putting out chairs, but I can add a punch of colour with some well placed flowers. Here’s how I put together my front porch planters.

I chose these planters that I bought at Canadian Tire. You can find similar ones here. You may have already heard about the formula for a great planter known as

Thrill, Fill and Spill

The gist of this being the THRILL is the showy top piece of the planter, generally something with a big of height and zhoosh. The FILL is the bulky filler. This can be anything that will fill in between the THRILL and the SPILL. And speaking of the SPILL, those are the beautiful trailing plants that complete your stunning planter.

My Plants

Thrill

• Cherry Sparkler Fountain Grass

• ColorBlaze Velveteen Coleus

Fill

• Pretty Grand Red Petunias

• Dreams Sky Blue Petunias

Spill

• Trailing Saphire Blue Lobelia

• Sweet Potato Vine

Here is how I put these together. I didn’t put any drainage in the bottom of the pots, because I have found in the past, that they dry out so fast, that I don’t want the water draining out the bottom. If it turns out that they need drainage later on, I will drill holes into the bottom with a drill. I use Miracle-Gro container soil. I am a big fan of Miracle-Gro and Scotts fertilizers and have been using this soil in my containers for years, it is the best. It’s loaded with fertilizer so you don’t need to add too much. But I will give it some Miracle-Gro  liquid fertilizer in a few weeks.

I filled the containers almost to the top, and then placed the larger plants on top of the soil. Break up the roots if you need to, as they are usually growing in the shape of the container. Then scoop in some soil around the larger plants. Lastly, just tuck in the smaller ones where you want them.

 

I usually alternate colours. And then work soil in around them until everything is covered. Here is what it looks like all done

Here is what it looks like from the top

Just ADD WATER And that’s it! Now let’s watch these babies grow!

Moment of truth

I have mixed some shade loving and some sun loving plants in together. They won’t get too much sun here on the front porch. So, if they look like they are hurting, I will relocate them to the back yard where they will get full sun.  So far they are looking pretty good.Here they are after about 10 days

Change It Up

I’m not really sure if I am loving the sky blue petunias with the rest of the of the colours. I am contemplating taking them out and replacing them with a different colour. Either way, I’ll add some more photos as these grow.

After shots

Here is an after shot of what the planters looked like once they filled in nicely. I like the way they came out. It’s now a year later , and I’m deciding what to put in them for this year. So, important to note that this spot is mostly shady, which is awesome because that means our back yard, gets tons of sun!!!!  Here are the plants I will be using again:

• Potato vine

• Trailing lobelia

• Coleus

The ones I’m not re-using here are:

• Cherry Fountain Grass

• Petunias

These plants just didn’t perform well enough because they needed more sun, than this area provided. Which is too bad because I love petunias, and I haven’t found a good spot for them yet.

Once I get my new planters done I’ll link there here.

 

 

 

 

 

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