{TUTORIAL} Colorfully Contained

Today's project was to create a mixed arrangement in a large plant container that I had on hand.   I am not a Master Gardener and my thumbs aren't even a shade of green ... I guess you could call me a "persistent gardener wannabe."   My planting experiments don't always work out well, but I keep trying.

To add a bit of summer color to the corner of our back porch, we took a trip to Lowes and bought these (not including the bucket of bricks!):


Purple Fountain Grass for height in the very center of the arrangement:



Pentas (white), Marigolds and Vincas to surround the fountain grass with color:


Lastly, Sweet Potato Vine and Purple Queen Purpurina to cascade and trail over the sides of the container:



First I placed several bricks at the bottom of the container, to prevent the soil from washing out of the container when watered.  Large stones would work much better, but I didn't have any and used what I had handy. 

Then I filled the container with Sta Green potting soil, leaving about 6 inches unfilled - this container used almost a full 2.48 cf bag.

I set the plants in place, after rearranging several times.  Then, filled around and between the plants with the remaining potting soil, pressing down firmly.  Last step (other than cleaning up all the soil I spilled on the porch!) was to water.

The plants are all suited for Full Sun and the corner of the porch gets full morning and full evening sun (not midday), so technically they get full sun, right?  Fingers are crossed!

Please pretend you don't notice that our lawn needs to be mowed - with all the rain we've had recently, it's still too wet to mow.  :)

10 comments:

  1. Very pretty, Carolyn! Would you believe I've never tried growing sweet potato vine? My mom used to have tons of it and I still want to plant some in my yard somewhere. Your blog looks great!!! You've done such a good job and your posts are perfect!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Lisa! Have always admired the bright green sweet potato vine and am hoping it will grow well in the container. Thanks for checking out my blog. I'm learning as I go. :) Have a great day!

      Delete
  2. Oh, I love your container garden! I want to do something like it! Need to find a suitable container, first. Can you send us some of your rain, please? We desperately need some rain.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Bless! Would you believe after all that rain that our ground is now so dry it's cracking?

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You've definitely got the "thriller, filler, and spiller" concept going on with your selection of plants. It turned out beautiful! Thanks for linking up on the Weekend Blog Hop at My Flagstaff Home.

    Jennifer

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your post is being featured at the Weekend Blog Hop at My Flagstaff Home! Be sure to stop by starting on Thursday night to see it. Thanks for participating and I hope to see you again.

    Jennifer
    http://www.myflagstaffhome.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for featuring my container arrangement post! I enjoy your blog and link parties and am honored! Thank you again!!!

      Delete
  7. Wow, your container looks beautiful! Love the variety of colors. I often use sweet potato vines as my 'spiller' since they are so hardy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! It is growing very quickly. This was my first experience with planting it and will definitely look for more areas to plant it next Spring/Summer. Appreciate your comment!

      Delete