Spring Container Garden Ideas

Add a bit of color and fragrance to your entryway this season with a container garden. 

A pot filled with cold tolerant annuals, vegetables and herbs can create the perfect welcome for you and your guests.  Use snapdragons, fragrant stocks, kale or Swiss chard for your vertical accent. 

Add some medium size plants around or in front of them.  Pansies are a spring favorite.  The butterflies will enjoy the nectar, you’ll like the fragrance and your guest will be delighted when you add a few of the flowers to their salad.  Add some colorful lettuce, arugula or parsley.   These edible additions combine nicely with flowers and add texture to your planting.  Regular harvesting will keep these plants producing and looking good.

Plant some fragrant alyssum and allow it to spill over the edge of the pot.  Add trailing plants like vinca, moneywort or Lamium (dead nettle) to finish off the planting and help blend the planting with the container.

Then, replace fading plants as the weather warms to keep your container looking its best.

Also, you can make plant transitions from spring to fall easier by leaving spring-only plants, like forced bulbs and pansies in their original container when planting.  As these plants fade in the heat, lift out the plant, pot and all, and replace it with a summer bloomer.  You’ll have less mess and less stress on the plants.

Free Garden Seminars on June 1
And stop by and see me this Saturday, June 1 as I present “Late Spring Rejuvenation for your Landscape” at these Stein Gardens and Gifts locations. Be sure to bring your garden questions and plant samples with you!

Sat., June 1, 2013
(11 a.m.-1 p.m.) Stein Gardens and Gifts - Mequon, N10850 W13 Port Washington Rd.

(2 - 4 p.m.) Stein Gardens and Gifts – Wauwatosa, 12217 W Watertown Plank Rd.  

Happy gardening!