DIY flower pots

DIY flower pots with this 3 day weekend upon us, I thought it’d be fun to show you some of my flower pots and give ya a few tips on how to build your own!

The pots that sit in the front of our house are pretty much always in the shade except for a little bit of early morning light.  It’s important to notice what kind of light exposure your potted plants will have… if they’re going to be in full sun then you need to buy plants that are happy in that kind of light.  Same goes for part sun or shady areas, each variety of plants will thrive in the kind of light the tag says 🙂

 

When you head out to buy your plants… don’t be afraid to ask questions.  Most of the time the people working in the garden departments are pretty knowledgeable and happy to help you out!  This year our Home Depot had this awesoem display!  Once you know the size of your pot then you can decide how many plants you need to buy.  My pots are 16 inches across at the top and so I have room enough for one spike plant (or tall growing) in the center, and two filler plants, with two cascading plants, which I place opposite each other.  Some pots are large enough to use 3 filler and 3 cascading with 1 spike in the center.  This is usually the combination you want to go for as it makes the prettiest looking pots.

The flowers I bought this year are:  my spike is a dark red Cordyline, my cascading plants have a small purple flower Laguna sky blue, and my filler are these adorable Shadow Dancers violette is the color!

When you’re ready to plant… it’s super important that you use fresh potting soil EVERY year!  One season of plant growing in soil will remove all the nutrients from that soil, so fresh is best at the start of each season!  I just buy whatever mix of potting soil happens to be available at the store.  AND buy your self a nice pair of gardening gloves while you’re there… it makes playing in the dirt so much more fun!

SO, when your choosing your pots… go with whatever style and size you enjoy, as well as what will fit the space where you want the pots to sit.  My pots are plastic that look like ceramic; I like this type of pot because they’re less expensive to purchase, not as heavy as ceramic, and look just a cute!  Oh yah and if they should happen to take a tumble they don’t break either 🙂

In the bottom of each pot I like to put several fist sized rocks; this helps with drainage as well as gives weight to the bottoms of my plastic pots. (when I dumped out last years soil, I even found a golf ball!)

Then you want to fill the pot almost half way full with the potting soil…

Then you place the center spike plant in position…

Then add the filler plants and the cascading plants opposite each other around the center plant,  fill in the remainder of the pot with potting soil.  If the roots are bound (look like the shape of the pot) when you take the plant out of the store container, gently pull the roots or compress the bottom slightly so as to break them up a little, this will cause the roots to branch out and not continue growing in the shape of the container.

AND it’s that easy to make DIY flower pots!! Remember to give your pots water every day!  We have a drip hose line running from some sprinklers to each pot for watering… which makes it very easy to keep up on 🙂