DIY Network

Front Container Garden Front Container Garden From "Ask DIY Gardening" episode DADG-105

A front-porch container garden is a good way to tie in the plantings of your backyard with the front of your house.

Q: I have some beautiful plants and flowers in my backyard. Is there a way I can tastefully display some of my garden on my front porch.

A: (from DIY's gardening expert, Walter Reeves) There are lots of options for displaying some of your treasured backyard plants at the front of your house. You can split some plants, and transfer half of each from the backyard to your front beds. One of the best and easiest ways to tie together the plants from the back of your house with the front is to create a container planting for your front porch. Here are some suggestions for a front-porch container planting for the fall, and one for the warm months.

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Container and Soil Tips

• A key with container gardening is drainage. If your container doesn't already have drainage holes, make some yourself using an electric drill and the appropriate drill-bit. For a large container, drill several holes to ensure that rainwater can drain effectively.

  Fill the container with commercially prepared soil (figure A). Select a soil that drains well. Use soil that contains a fair amount of perlite (figure B) -- the white, beadlike ingredient that helps the soil drain well.

  Fill the container with soil practically to the rim so that the plants will be displayed well once they are planted in the container.

  Figure B

  Figure A

  
  
  

• For a container planting, think "up, down and all around." In other words, divide your plants among tall ones, low ones, and ones that cover a lot of surface and fill in the central portion of the planting. As you remove the plants from their pots, disturb and separate the roots slightly to encourage them to grown into the new soil.

Fall Container-Planting

For a "down" plant, consider bird's foot ivy (figure C). Plant it at the front edge of the container so that it can cascade over the edge as it grows.

For an "all-around plant" for a fall planting, use some pansies (figure D). These are ideal for cool-weather planting, and can bloom in temperatures as low as 20F degrees.

Another colorful option is violas (figure E), attractive blooming plants that can bloom at temperatures even below than 20 degrees.

Figure C

Figure D

Figure E

Lime-glow juniper (figure F) is an attractive evergreen with bright foliage. Though you might not have considered junipers for a container, but this one works ideally -- especially for a fall planting. It grows very slowly, so it won't outgrow the container quickly.

Purple sage (figure G) is another plant with attractive foliage. It's considered an annual, but can withstand temperatures down into the twenties.

Purple fountain-grass (figure H) is another annual with attractive fall-color foliage. This is perfect for the "up" plant, creating a tall backdrop for the other plants.

Figure F

Figure G

Figure H

Spring Container-Planting

Using the same strategy and structure as the one described above, you can create a planting that's ideally suited for spring (figure I).

• Ours contained the fun-to-pronounce Magilla perilla as an "all-around" plant (figure J).

• Formium, or flax, forms the tall backdrop, taking the place of the purple fountain-grass that was used in our fall planting.

• Other plants in our spring collection include the bright green ponytail grass, African daisies, ornamental sweet-potato vine and yellow Bidens (figure K).

  Figure I

  Figure J

  Figure K