Container gardens are a designer’s dream because of the hundreds of plant varieties, thousands of containers, and limitless possibilities.
They’re appropriate for hobbyists who haven’t gardened before or for professionals looking to test and enhance their work in the garden.
It is a matter of personal taste and choice when it comes to garden design. Others prefer their gardens to be neat, while others prefer them to be wild. You might like trees, whereas your neighbor likes flowers. That’s part of the fun of designing something new.
Despite this, there are certain fundamental design principles that can improve the appearance of your containers and the garden as a whole.
These are not commandments (don’t let me smother your inner creative brilliance), but rather guidelines or methods that will improve a basic container garden to dazzling.
1. Consider Sizing
Container gardening is all about size. This also applies to the pots you pick, what you put inside them, and how you position them in your container garden.
Plant care should come before picking a pot. Your container should be big enough to hold the plant’s growth, but not so big that it gets overshadowed. Root development might be influenced by the container’s depth. You don’t want to purchase a pot and discover that the plants have outgrown it in only a few months. It won’t appeal to you, and the plants won’t either.
However, when picking the size of your containers, care is not the only factor to consider. Design is also influenced by it.
In a pot that is too big, small plants seem to be even tinier. Similarly, in a huge container garden, tiny pots seem even tinier. Make sure your plants appear strong and fruitful, not skeletal and feeble.
Going too big is also a possibility. You don’t want your pot to be weighed down by too much water or overflowing out the sides. At most, the plant should be twice the size of the pot in height and width.
Ultimately, in your container garden, think about the proportions of your individual pots. Regardless of which plants you choose, an entire garden of pots the same size is likely to look one-note. To draw attention to various heights in the garden, vary the sizes of your pots and the heights of the plants inside them.
2. Play with Color
Container gardening has a lot of fun with color experimentation. Pick one or two colors to employ throughout the garden if you want harmonious, consistent color combinations.
It’s possible to have a monochrome style that isn’t dull. To add variety while staying within your color palette, choose flowers of similar hues but in various tones. When it comes to container garden design and design in general, keeping it simple is rarely a bad idea.
Gardeners who want the vibrant and vivid may choose to go wild on the other end of the color spectrum.
Flowers in any shade you can imagine can be found at your local nursery, and sometimes two or three hues on the same plant. Take advantage of this diversity. Find bi-color flowers with a dramatic contrast built-in. Pair contrasting colors of light and dark in the same pot.
A valuable garden design tool is the color wheel. To emphasize and brighten both, place flowers with compatible colors (orange and blue, for example) side by side.
Flowers are frequently the focus, but remember to pay attention to the leaves. Even if the plants aren’t blooming, your containers should always look well-designed. Hundreds of container-friendly plants with vibrant leaves are available. Not just during one season, utilize them to keep your pots standout at all times.
3. Don’t Ignore Texture
Bold, dominating flowers can benefit from fine, delicate leaves. Structural plants may be softened by wispy grasses. The aim is to achieve harmony by selecting plants that compliment rather than battle for your attention.
Thankfully, there are several options for exciting, contrasting textures. Soft, fuzzy leaves and blooms (such as the popular Lamb’s Ear) have a completely different appearance than bold, gleaming plants. Despite this, they seem to collaborate.
A softer garden’s blur-like texture may be softened by spiky grasses or thistle-like plants. Make sure that the plants in your container garden and those you put together in a pot offer a wide range of textures and structures.
4. Thriller, Filler, Spiller and the Rule of Three
Consider how you’ll arrange your pots and the garden as a whole before you start planting. A little plant in the midst of a container full of big plants will be totally overwhelmed, and (as far as design is concerned) it will no longer exist.
If the pot is placed in a corner, place the tallest plant in the center or at the back. The star of the show is in this location. Add smaller, complimentary plants called fillers to surround the main plant, giving it another level of attraction.
Trailing plants are perfect for pot edges, which seem to spill out of the pot. They’re also fantastic for concealing unsightly stains on containers. Thriller, filler, and spiller are the three fundamental elements of the plot.
Apply the “Rule of Three” rule while arranging your pots by grouping pots of various heights together. To prevent the garden from seeming one-dimensional, add one or two towering plants in each group.
To add variety, mix flowers and foliage, shrubs and succulents, or any other combination of plants in the groupings of three. Only in separate pots can you put two plants with very different needs next to each other in a container garden (take advantage).
5. Think About Your Surroundings
Regardless of how many pots you have in your container garden, it should always blend in with the surrounding environment. The same concept applies to the remainder of your garden or the furnishings on your balcony.
It’s important that the container garden blend in with its environment. Smaller pots should be elevated or utilized to fit in with other pots to prevent getting lost in the scenery. Larger pots may be put anywhere in a garden and hold their own. When compared to the surrounding plants, you may beautifully balance color, texture, structure, and movement inside one pot.
Container gardening, on the other hand, provides that benefit – you can simply relocate your pots until you find the ideal location.
The exploration of container garden design is the focus. Test out these suggestions and see which suits you best.
Step outside of your usual comfort zone and choose a typeface you don’t know much about; you may be surprised. So, if you’re not satisfied, you can always swap your mind and repot at the end of the day, which is a great gardening technique for the indecisive.