Spruce up your patio or deck with patio planters
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 its nursery pot too long.
Follow this plan and your patio planter garden will be the envy of the neighborhood.
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