What a difference some annual flowers make to the general aesthetic of my home! As I’m writing to you, I’m sitting outside just soaking in all the colour and freshness. I’m seeing all the bees coming in to visit, as well as the birds, and the neighbours kitty of course. There’s so much to explore now! I’m loving the addition of my annuals planters not only for the aesthetic, but for the creative joy it brought me! How fun it was to pick the pot, pick the flowers, and get my hands dirty this week. These are going to look so great all season long.
This week, I sat down with our awesome annuals department and Janette to get an idea on how to design one these planters. I soon realized there are many ways you can let your creativity run wild, but if you’re looking for some guidelines, we’re going through that today.
First off, you want to start with a container that has drainage holes. Why? You don’t want water sitting in the bottom of your pot! You want to let your planter breathe.
Next, your soil. Side note, have you been watching our passion project GAKidsTV? We do a whole episode on soil including why you don’t call it dirt! Believe me, I learned a lot and Colin never lets me forget, hahaha. Okay, back to planters. You need a good quality potting mix like Pro-mix. They do a really nice general one for flowers as well as ones specific for veggies. To get the most out of our short growing season, feel free to add in some nice compost like Sea Soil.
Now the fun part-choosing the plants! You may have seen our beautiful hand crafted annuals before. They’re generally designed by “Thriller, Filler, and Spiller”. Fun to say, right? The “thriller” is the focal point of the planter. This is usually a tall plant such as grass Purple Fountain, King Tut, Canna Lily, or Dracaena. The “filler” is the body of the planter. This Is where you can use textures and complimenting colors to achieve a pleasing look. We like to use geraniums, petunias, but you can even use venture into tropical plants like crotons and spider plants. Finally, the “spiller” refers to the trailing plants that cascade over your container. This an include potato vine, Creeping Jenny, or Bacopa.
DONE!
Again, there’s so many ways to be creative with planters, this is just a nice guideline to follow if you need 🙂
Throughout the season, watch for some light maintenance on your planters. Check your soil daily for watering especially in the hot dry weather when they can dry out super quickly. To enhance those blooms, you can apply a weekly fertilizer like this Organic Water Soluble Bloom Fertilizer from Pro mix. You could also go with a nice All purpose fertilizer like this CIL one, or this one from Gaia Green.
Another thing you can do to promote growth right through to autumn, is dead heading. That’s when you remove the dead blooms so that plant can produce more.
Thanks to the annuals department and Janetter for sharing their wisdom this week!
Be sure to tag us on Instagram with your annual planters! We’d love to see and share your creativity!
Next week: Vegetables & Herbs: Garden to Table
Happy Gardening!
Brandi
