Unique Serving Platter

Your patio or deck can look pretty spartan without some plants to liven up the scenery. Patio planters are the perfect solution. You can place a lovely miniature tree right next to your chaise lounge. When the day is hot, this plant affords you welcome shade. Using patio planters allows you to landscape your patio with bright displays of blooms or a little herb garden right on your kitchen patio.

You can have color year around, with a little strategic planning. A planter can be used to force bulbs in winter for a bright, dazzling display to chase away those winter blues. If it’s suited to your area, forsythia is a late winter bloomer, whose leaves turn a luminous, fiery yellow in February. Begonias and climbing or hanging fuschias look terrific in patio planters placed in a shady area in summer. The possibilities are almost countless. Given a large enough planter, you can grow many landscaping plants in tubs.

If you’re looking to have some plants that require a good depth to be successful, you can build your own patio planters, customized to your patio or deck dimensions. They’re simple enough to build. Just use treated wood or redwood so that it won’t decay. Other than that, all you need are heavy metal braces for the corners and some scrap wood for feet. If you want the planter to be movable, fit it with casters.

Commercial patio planters vary in size and material. Besides the popular oak half barrel type, you’ll find a wide range of materials from which to choose. There are ready made wood planters in limited sizes, which are generally square. There are also large plastic patio planters in terracotta, dark green or gray finishes. Plastic planters tend to retain water better than clay pots, but may also get hot enough to burn the plant’s roots, so you want to monitor them carefully. True terracota pots are very attractive, but remember they’ll need watering more often than their neighbors in plastic patio planters. Strawberry jars are also made of clay and make attractive decorations on a small patio. This type of planter is shaped somewhat like a vase, with several clay lips that protrude from the sides of the jar in a spiral formation. You plant one plant in each hole. Cascading or trailing plants look best.

When you’ve selected your plants and chosen your planters, prepare them with at least several inches of gravel in the bottom so your plants won’t suffer root rot. Use nursery bagged potting soil so you don’t introduce garden pests with garden soil. Buy only as many plants as you’re sure to be able to plant within a couple of days. Warm days can easily spoil the health and looks of a plant left in it’s nursery pot too long. Follow this plan and your patio planter garden will be the envy of the neighborhood.

Are you one of those gardeners who loves planting beds of annuals each year for that burst of color, but shies away from the perennials? You’re not alone. Many enthusiastic gardeners believe perennial gardening is only for the experts, requiring too much maintenance, yields a short season of bloom and looks purely unattractive in winter. All of these reasons to discount perennial gardening are false! Let’s take a look at how you can use perennials to create dramatic year round effects that last many years, with far less effort than your annuals.

Perennial gardening does require a bit more planning, but careful choices, planted in the right location can add masses of color that put those annuals to shame! Let’s say you have a spot where you always plant those cheery marigolds to brighten the summer pathway to your front entry. Yes, it looks great in summer, but what about the other three seasons? Try lining the pathway with an evergreen spring bloomer to add interest and color to the pathway while waiting for those marigolds? Winter crocuses can be planted in the same bed. By the time their glory is spent, your marigolds will fill out and cover the dormant bulbs.

Perennial gardening allows for drifts of mixed perennials with overlapping bloom times, giving you a spectacular all summer display. There are perennial varieties with long blooming seasons. Plant large drifts of such varieties interspersed with short bloomers for an ever changing display of color. Many perennials naturalize, spreading in clumps over a period of years. Creeping phlox spreads to form a thick, lush carpet of springtime color in the woodland garden. Other perennials, like agapanthas and daylilies need division every few years. For this effort, you gain new plants at no additional expense.

Perennial gardening offers colorful possibilities for every season. Choose a planting of Heavenly Bamboo for a fiery accent to the fall garden. Try forsythia for a luminous yellow bush that lights up the late winter landscape. Rock cottonwood is an evergreen that looks handsome in all seasons, adding a bright note to your perennial landscaping with it’s bright red winter berries. A bed of cyclamens offer white, pink and magenta blooms during the dreariest winter days. Ornamental grasses, strategically placed amongst summer blooming plants can show their stuff to dramatic advantage in the winter months.

If you’ve hesitated with perennial gardening plans, visit your nursery or go online. Your local nursery worker can advise you of which perennials do well in your area and specific garden conditions. Online, you’ll find plenty of articles full of particulars on the many virtues of perennial gardening to get you started. You’ll soon wonder how you managed to restrain yourself to those lovely but fleeting annuals!