Front Porch Planters – “Dress” Them For The Season!
Ok now. We are not going to talk about those Cement Geese that are dressed in different outfits each season. I don’t like those things at all and never have. If you like them, then keep dressing them up for holidays, but I just will hide my eyes!
As for myself, I have some really heavy and fairly large front porch planters made from cement. I am ready to get those planted up and have made a decision based on what seems to grow the best year round here in Ohio. I have chose the Sedum spurium “Immergrunchen.” You can see what a great choice this is from a previous post I wrote.
Each season gives me the opportunity to fix up the front cement planters. For this summer season, I am going to plant some of this sedum in these planters with the hope that the qualities that this sedum have can carry over for each year thereafter. I think I can still do that sedum and dress them for an occasional holiday, right? I loved last year’s Persian Shield. Such color!
These are cement pots, not hypertufa. I got these on Clearance at Lowe’s probably about 5 years ago. When we moved, my husband hated that I wanted to take them with me. But I really like these planters and wanted to save them for me.
I have dressed these for spring and summer before using a colorful foliage plant. See my Persian Shield from last year. And I did cut evergreens to dress them for Christmas/Winter. If you get to cut fresh greens from large trees in yours or a friend/relatives living trees, these seriously last for the entire winter season. It wasn’t until February that I removed the boughs, some of which were still green. The resulting avalanche of needles that fell off were perfect to spread into my garden there out front, since I have hostas there and those needles decompose with an acidity that hostas love.
At fall, near Halloween and Thanksgiving, placing some pumpkins around the planters out front gives some beautiful color out there. Smaller pumpkins and gourds just add to the color display. If you have some American bittersweet, you are in luck. That red and orange is the perfect combination for the time of year.
I remember this particular vine all over the forests when I was a little girl. My brothers and sisters all ran wild over the surrounding forests and cattle fields and would find this vine. It grows aggressively, so be careful with these seeds if you don’t want it all over your property. But it is so pretty! Some sources say it is poisonous to pets, so use with caution.
My front porch faces a southern exposure, so it has a hot and sunny afternoon, slightly filtered by surrounding trees. But the cement urns dry out pretty quickly. That is why I thought planting them with a succulent would work well for this area. And I will use vermiculite as a soil additive for aeration and for its water-holding capabilities. I know that I could water easily since they are just out on the front porch. But I also forget things easily. Better safe than sorry.
Thanks for reading. Now let’s go get our hands dirty in the garden!