Container Gardening Made Easy

Color, Texture, & Spring!

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March 2022 Issue
By Meredith M. Deal
Photography by Mike Force Photography


Beautiful container gardens can be showstoppers and brighten up the smallest of spaces. When #naturescalling, it's the perfect time to start planting. Your efforts will be rewarded, time-and-time again as you enjoy the fruits of your labor. This container garden is a work of art and you can play with and adjust it as the seasons change.

Floral Container Garden for Early Spring, Partial Sun

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The Container:
A Terracotta pot,
12-inches across and 11-inches high

 

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Step 1:

Start by putting something in the bottom for drainage such as rocks, broken pottery, styrofoam peanuts or a couple inches of mulch. Then fill the pot
with premium potting mix, leaving an inch at the top for watering. Be sure to use a liquid or granular slow-release, high-phosphorus fertilizer for
three months of continuous feeding. In container gardening, always use a thriller, a filler, and some spiller!

Step 2: The Thriller:
Primrose
One of the best cool season annuals with great color. (Be sure to loosen the roots of all the plants, breaking them up a little bit.) Plant the primrose in the back of the one-sided arrangement.

Step 3:
The Fillers: Daffodils & Pansies
1) Tiny Tete-a-Tete Daffodils—Everyone loves daffodils; they are beautiful! Place one on each side, (These are bulbs, so be careful when loosening roots.)
The daffodils also provide height in the filler.
2) Pansies—Great in the early spring, lasting through April or May, depending on how hot it gets. Spread six bright white pansies with lavender and yellow centers throughout the container. Using a variety of fillers is ideal for container gardening.

Step 4: The Spiller:

Lysimachia Goldilocks
The spiller, in this case Lysimachia Goldilocks, needs to flow over the sides of the pot to soften the edges.

Lysimachia Goldilocks is bright chartreuse, making it showy and colorful. It will brighten up the container and eventually spill all the way down the sides of the pot.

Step 5:
Last: Go back and mulch the top of the pot to hold in moisture. This makes it look better, too. You don’t want to see dirt. (When the daffodils are done, the bulbs can be transplanted to your yard or other container for next year.)

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