Holiday Container Garden

Would you believe that I still have fall bulbs to plant! Worst part is i just bought them! I just can't seem to pass them up when they are 75% off! I've blogged about this before so if you live in the NW head out to Lowe's or Home Depot and pick some up!

Okay but that's not the reason for this post. I thought I'd share a garden post with you fit for this time of year! We recently had a silent auction at work and raised over $5000 in an afternoon as part of our annual giving campaign. My department is generally pretty generous - in addition to the money raised in the auction we donated $16,000 in 2011 through payroll deduction. I'm a big proponent of charitable giving - mostly to gay rights and animal rescue organizations.

Anyway - I was asked to donate something for the auction so I put together a holiday garden for the front porch. It's easy enough to do and is quite festive so go pick up a few supplies and you too can create your own holiday garden. Just remember - fillers,spillers and thrillers! That's what they say about container gardening. It's helpful to keep that in mind when picking your plant selection.

I started with a pot that I already had that was the perfect size and just the right color for what I had in mind.



For my thriller plant I selected a Monetary Cypress, I love this plant. I have a couple on planters on the front porch and just change out the "fillers and spillers" and I'm always happy.




The holidays are just not complete for me unless I've grown narcissus bulbs so the planter had to have a few in as fillers - in addition I included a fern, a burgundy cyclamen and a red kalanchoe.
















Finally I added bucoppa as my spiller - another great plant.




I arranged them in the pot and then took cuts from my holly tree and a few pine-combs from my yard and a few artificial berries and red ornaments to add the final touch and a little color.













It looks great on the front porch. Unfortunately it's not for all climates but we generally have very mild winters here in the NW so unless the temperature drops below 30 degrees it does well outside and lasts the entire month. It's a very nice welcoming arrangement for holiday guests.












So get out and pick up some plants and do a little winter gardening!

Jim

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