Container Gardning Part 2

It all started with a trip to Home Despot to check out their sale on bathroom tile.

Honest it did.

They had racks and racks and racks of garden plants--just in! And I found an enthusiastic woman who was thrilled to help me assemble an assortment for my shady front yard. Here's what I got:



4 dracenea --for height.
2 fuchsia --bright pink with purple insides. My daughter wanted them.
2 osteospermum --the daisy-like things with dark purple centres. I love them.
2 potato vines-- just because.
2 calibrachoa --small, bright green with small purple flowers to hang down the sides of the pot.

But before I planted them into my pots, I needed to know where to position the pots.

Let's see. Here?

rather underwhelming, don't you think?

I wanted the UP. I needed height, so I tracked down these old zinc washtubs I bought eons ago.

just misses being symmetrical. hate that.

Hmm, what about here?



I liked it.

Actually, looking at it again, now, I love it! It hides the mess we made of the walk way when we tore it up a couple of years ago and the down spouts are less visible, too.

But I wasn't sure it didn't look sort of silly. So, I left things like that until hubby cam home. He laughed.

So, I went for the simple, the honest, the true: planters at the foot of the stairs.

I bought some potting soil. Thrifty Decor Chick told me to "look for the cheap" potting soil--so I did. It took a while, actually, but I found some stuff at $2.99 for a big bag. The next cheapest potting soil was $7.99 Quite the difference!

As I was putting together the planter, I followed another bit of Thrifty Decor Chicks bits of advice: turn pots the plants came in upside down inside the pot to take up some of that space! It also makes the pots themselves lighter and thus easier to move.


So, I planted away in 40 to 60 km/hour winds last night. (Ok, mostly 40.)

This was my planting "station" set-up.

This morning, I had this:

zero impact. taken at about 8:30am this morning.

and this:



Did I miss something? They just look like plants stuck in a pot to me.

Are there too many plants?
Have I put them in the wrong spots?
Do I need different pots?
Or is this just the way things look at the beginning?

I know you can help me.

Please?UPDATE: Really, the problem isn't my pots, is it? It's the fact that there are no plants in the front, there. I have been researching my options for shrubs in this shady spot. I've decided that mock orange--or philadelphus lewisii 'Blizzard" is a shrub that will work--and a local nursery has one! I'm so excited. Hopefully, I can purchase that tonight and get it into the ground tomorrow. I'd also like to try actaea racemosa or Bugbane on the west side of those steps.