Metal Containers

Metal Containers are great cause they can vary so much in shape, size, color, style, and finish. Here are two simple examples. Neither of these was intended for outdoor plants. The top one was a simple galvanized tin bucket used for decoration. Put a few holes in it and it is a planter. The ice plant does well in this one. I would probably choose a different plant next time for this planter, but it works.

The bottom one here was intended to be an indoor container that you can put either fake plants in or place a separate plastic pot inside. I liked it for an outdoor planter, so again, I put a few holes in it and planted.

Containers like these can be bought at thrift stores for almost nothing.

Decorative Rocks...a new use

This is my neighbor's yard. She recently re-did her front and wanted to put some kind of border in. I had recently collected some decorative rock from a construction site that was going to be thrown away. This rock is used for the exterior of the home.

The back side of the rock is flat, so it is easy to place in the ground. The top is nice and natural looking. It ended up looking pretty good here in her garden. I would have done it a bit different, but that's why it's her garden and not mine.

Either way, a nice re-use of a material and it was cheap. The rock is nice cause it weathers extremely well - it is made for the exterior of the home, so it handles cold, hot, wet, etc well. One thing it does not like is contact - what I mean is that the color rubs off if it is walked on or rubbed with another hard object. So, not a great material for a walk way, but as a decorative material, it is quite nice.

It is also easy to find and cheap. You can go to almost any home being built
where they are installing rock and ask them to leave the extra for you instead of throwing it away. There are lots of different styles, colors, etc, so look for one you like. Also, you can call the exterior company and ask them ahead of time.

Slip cover

This is an easy to make and easy to use container cause it is simply a container slip cover. It looks great at a slight height cause you can't see the plastic pot inside it. I built this using some old fence planks. I made it large enough to fit a pot so I could place in it whatever pot I wanted to without having to re-pot the plant and mix my own soil.

Clematis and Trellis

This is my clematis plant in the front yard. It is growing nicely and I am excited to see it bloom this summer with many small white flowers. I built this trellis last summer when I planted it and already need to extend it. I made the trellis out of redwood stakes you can buy at a local garden store such as Home Depot. I used copper wire to tie the crossing points and cut the bottom stakes so they would slide in the soil better. I can easily add to the trellis by building a new section that is identical and tying it to the old one. I also need to extend the trellis to the side a little as well to help the plant spread out a bit and not clump too much ( I don't want a thick bush here, but a nice spreading background of color for my yard).

Updated Hens and Chicks

So the Hens and Chicks have really taken over their container. It is about time to divide them (to happen soon). They have really looked beautiful this year. The large Hen in front here is finally about to bloom. I will need to work on this container soon to make sure it stays healthy and thin it a bit.

Finished Log Planter

Here is the log planter, all planted. This picture was taken after the planter had an unfortunate spill inside the car on the way to Mom and Dad's house (it was a gift to them). In this planter is, from left to right, Lamium, Stonecrop, Woolley Thyme x2, Stone Crop, and Woolley Thyme.
The soil is a well draining soil made of sand, garden soil (loam), some compost, and fine gravel. The Lamium is is a deeper hole and in softer, more decomposed wood - it needs the more nutrient rich environment of the decomposing wood.

Basket Planters

Here is an example of some basket planters. These are super easy to make and work well as planters. You can pick up cheap baskets from thrift stores (.50 cents to $1). Two of these were meant for plants and one was a former picnic basket. The top one here was originally just a cover for a pot, but it was easy to convert to a planter itself. The second was a hanging basket, but looked pretty good on the ground. The last was the picnic basket. Not too many modifications have to be made here as they work pretty well as is and have built in drainage.

The important thing is to make sure the basket isn't too deep for the plants. In deep ones, I placed crushed brick pieces to take up space in the bottom, to add a little weight, and to not waste soil that wouldn't be used by the plants intended for the basket.

Another item to remember is to make sure you water these well, according to the plant needs. Baskets lose water easier than other containers due to the obvious - holes/spaces. This means your soil can really dry out fast on these. However, if you stay on top of it, they do great. The middle one is a drought tolerant plant and was planted last year. It survived a very cold winter as well. The bottom one here has some miniature marigolds planted (from seed) around the base to fill in the space and add color. We'll see how they turn out.

Taco Time

This container is actually a taco shell warmer you can buy in a local grocery store for about $2. The depth and shape of the container is nice, the
design is simple, and it was easy to turn into a planter.

To do this, take the lid, remove the handle at the top of the lid with a utility knife, and then turn the lid upside down. The bottom of the container fits just right into the lid and the whold thing rests quite stable on it. Don't forget to drill holes in the bottom of the container so water can get out.
Lastly, you can remove the lid to get rid of excess water or just tip the container a round a bit to let the water drip out the hole where the handle was.

In this container you are looking at chives. Not a great display of them, but we are still learning how to grow herbs (expanding our horizons beyond ornimentals).

Log Planter

While rummaging around an old barn in Pleasant Grove, Utah, we found a large pile of old logs. This included the stump already posted on this site and some beautifully aged logs such as this one. Slowly we have been getting to them, carefully digging them out and preparing them for plants. This one is almost done. There is just a little more work needed to dig out the left side to make it deep enough for the plants we have in mind.

The pattern we have chosen here for planting simply follows a natural flow of the wood and is just a deeper version of what was already there. The whole thing was done in about 2 hours with chisels. Not too hard.

We will not need to add drainage hole to this log since there is a natural drainage flow to the right side and since the plants and soil to be placed in here will already be high drainage and low water content.

The top picture shows how the natural lay of the log is. Most likely, rock garden friendly plants will go in this planter. However, wooley thyme would look great in it too. The key is to select plants that will live in the rougher soil conditions and be low lying. The design of the log wouldn't look too good with plants that reach too high. Plants that will spread out a bit and maybe hang over the edge will look great. We'll see how it turns out.

Rusted Can

Rusted cans are easy to find and easy to use. This one is a larger can (not soup can size - more like a taller version of the larger fruit cans) and is great for the right plant.

You can easily drill holes in the bottom for drainage and not much else needs to be done. This one was used (picture to come later) to plant a small tree in. Seriously, a tree. I will have to explain later.