It’s rare you leave the house without some form of accessory. Be it a watch, cute shoes, a decent handbag, or even a spectacular manicure. All of these add usually add to an outfit. So why not do this in your garden space?
I love dressing up my yard space with various and sundry pots. It helps that my yard is predominantly brick pavers, so most of the greenery has to be imported in through various means. This means ceramic or clay pots for the yard. I like an eclectic mix, that is many different colors and styles, that work well with the chosen plants and have some sort of meaning to me.
But, Matty, how do I chose decent pots for my garden? Interesting you should ask. Here are some helpful hints on choosing ceramics for your yard:
- If you live in a cold area, make sure that your choice is rated for the cold. Otherwise plan on overwintering them in a garage since they can crack.
- Buy from a reputable dealer, like an independent garden center or a pottery wholesaler.
- Know in advance what you plan on putting in it that way you can plan for how large of one to buy.
- Sometimes plain old terra cotta pots work best, and their affordable.
- These things are expensive as all get out.
I spent Saturday morning looking for some new plants and I happened to have my camera with me, so here’s a selection I found whilst out.
Go bold with you color choices. Green looks spectacular against a variety of oranges. It happens often in nature, so why not try it in your yard?
Oranges and Reds can add some much needed ‘heat’ to cool tones garden spaces.
Bold seems to be the theme for the crop of ceramics coming out of Vietnam these days.
Be careful what you plant in these, some plants would just get lost in a green pot.
The band of chocolate across the top of this planter come fountain will help provide a space for the green of the plants not to get lost.
For those of us who live in desert regions, green pottery can help bring some much needed green to an otherwise silvery landscape.
Blue. You know what’s up.
Look at the pattern stamped into this one? It would look amazing in a formal garden, maybe one in the French or Asian style?
Turquoise. Think of how well yellows, blacks, and greens will bounce off of this pot.
You can never go wrong with basic black. It brings the modern to the garden.
More patterns, this time on something in a nice shade of ochre. This one would look especially nice in Southwestern gardens, in Asian themed ones (imagine and azalea planted in this bad boy. Or a pittosporum? ), or a formal garden where you want the plants to take center stage.
You don’t have columns, but you want some? Try these. They bring doric realness to your garden. Think traditional with these sorts of planters. Boxwoods. Junipers. Topiary.
A more modern take on the basic square planter. Put something architectural in these like an Ocotillo or some Agapanthas.
Now that you’ve got the planters, what to put into them? Oh you name it and it can be done. Here are some of the things I love in planters:
Go full on Versailles and get yourself an orangerie. I love citrus in planters. The blooms smell amazing. If you live in an area where it gets cold, this is the only way you can have these amazing plants in your yard.
Statement plants like this Podocarpus. It will need a giant planter and possibly something anchoring it into the ground, but picture two of these in massive black planters at the entrance of a driveway.
Stone fruit trees like these plum tree saplings. They look lovely on a patio. Can you picture these in a large terra cotta pots surrounded by some sort of draping ground cover like a sweet potato vine in a purple or a chartreuse?
Bonsai. Yep, bonsai. Look at this amazing scene done in a dish with a pedestal.
Succulents. Golden barrels look lovely in a planter.
No.
Again, no, girl, just no.
One of the hazards of planters is sometimes the plants outgrow the pot, like this topiary has. One day very soon this will come crashing down in a windstorm. Think long and hard about what goes into your planters, or plan for what to do when something outgrows what you’ve planted it in. An hour of planning is much better than say a broken pot or worse a hole in your fence when it becomes to top heavy and falls over.
Lovely mix of succulents, but the paryyi’s are already getting to big for the planter. Same with the blue glow agave.
And there you have it. Anything pottery or planter wise you all like? Now while I love wooden planters, they really don’t work well out here. Go forth and container garden! Big thank you to Mesquite Valley Growers for allowing me to take lots of photos there. Its always a fun day when I can start there.
This is Walter. He lives there and has quite the fan club.
Photo Credit: This Guy! If you’re a registered Landscape Architect and you need help, hire him. He is willing to relocate.