Create A Beautiful Container Garden For Your Patio Or Deck
A patio or a deck should serve as a transition for your indoor and outdoor living. In some cases, you may have more room on your patio or deck than your yard. Either way, a container garden creates that feeling of transition by bringing plantlife into your living space. Design a beautiful container garden for your deck or patio.
Select the Containers
Naturally, the foundation of your container garden comes in the containers. While it's not necessary to pick matching outdoor planters, there should be some cohesive element. For example, consider choosing large outdoor planters all in a single color palette. Alternatively, look for repeating shapes in the outline or pattern. You could even choose a style, such as Mexican talavera, and buy containers of different sizes and shapes in that style. Another option is to choose a theme, such as country garden, and buy a few unusual containers, such as a wheelbarrow or trough, for your garden.
Look for a Few Tall Plants
One method of transforming a few scattered plants into a cohesive garden is by grouping the plants together. To that end, you'll want to be deliberate in your choice of plants. Start with a selection of a few tall plants that thrive in planters. Better Homes and Gardens states that certain fig hybrids, berries, hops, and dwarf citrus trees grow surprisingly well in containers. Use these as an anchor plant for your clusters.
Attend to Shapes
Along those same lines, add more visual interest to your container garden with the shape of the plants you choose. For example, if you start with a dwarf citrus tree, it will still have the shape of a standard citrus tree – tall with a mounded canopy. Echo the shape of the mounded canopy with plants that you cluster near the dwarf citrus. For example, certain varieties of basil grow naturally into a mound, as do geraniums. However, play with shapes a little, too, by adding contrast. So, if you have a lot of round shapes in your cluster, look for a trailing plant or one with pointed leaves.
Vary the Color
The other big way to add visual interest is with color. You have so many options here that it depends on your design style. For example, you could opt to start with a color palette and select plants that fall into those hues. Alternatively, choose flowers in shades of the same color, such as pink or blue. Another option is to channel the fecund profusion of an English cottage garden and simply choose whatever colors catch your fancy. If choosing that, make sure your planters show enough similarity to promote a cohesive effect.
Beautify your deck or patio with a charming container garden.
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