How To: Customize A Pre-Made Planter For Fall

On the weekend we bought a 12 inch fall planter from Rona for $14.99. After looking at plants and planters for the last few weeks, I knew that I could not buy the plants that made up the planter for less than that price.  The pre-made planter included an aster, a mum, a very large kale plant and a spike.  Added bonus: the asters and mum will bloom again next year if I plant them in the garden afterwards.

I was a little thrown by the asymmetrical flower arrangement (in particular, the spike) but I knew that I could tweak it once I brought it home.

I tried it out in both of my urns and discovered that it wouldn’t fit in either one, so I tested it in my go-to fall planter, a wooden barrel that I bought a few years ago from the grocery store that has more than paid for itself.

Good, but not great. That’s where a few more plants come into play.

Time to customize!

Since the barrel is wooden, I lined it with an industrial garbage bag to contain the moisture and cut several holes in the bottom of the bag for drainage  This worked really well for my summer window boxes that are still thriving today.

Then I used the newspaper trick from my spring planters to keep the weight down.

From there it was just a matter of filling the planter with soil, carefully separating the plants that were in the pre-made planter and arranging everything the way I wanted it in the barrel.

Here’s what I ended up with:

 

And this is what I used if you like what you see:

I know it’s not officially fall until Saturday, but I just couldn’t bring myself to leave this hiding in the backyard!

I can’t wait to see how it fills out!

How much did it cost?

• Pre-made planter: $14.99
• Ornamental grass: $5.99
• Kale: $1.98 x 2 ($3.96)
• Soil: $4.94 (used for this + 3 other fall planters)
• Barrel: $0 (already owned)

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  Total: $30 + tax for an enormous custom planter!

Our porch has never looked better than in 2012.

Please, take a peek at how it has evolved through the seasons:

Spring 2012

Summer 2012

Fall 2012

(so far . . . I’m just getting started!)

More fall projects are on the way soon!

 

P.S. Thank you so much for all your sweet comments about Maggie. It meant so much to me.

P.P.S. Check out how to quickly update your mailbox with a vinyl monogram here.

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