Winter planter gardens

How to perk up your Fall containers

When frost turns the contents of your outdoors planters into a blackened mushy mess;  think about sprucing up your containers for the holiday/winter season. Winter planter gardens are a great way to continue to “garden” during the winter months.

A great way to redecorate your outdoor container is to add a spruce tree tops along with assorted evergreens and foliage such as pine tips, blueberried juniper, incensed cedar, oregonia, red huck, ruscus, or dyed seeded eucalyptus.

It’s best to start with fresh soil. If your container is full of roots, it may be difficult to insert the foliage stems. Therefore, it is best to remove the old soil and start with fresh soil, this way your planter will be ready to plant next spring.

Begin by inserting a spruce tree top into the center of the pot, add pine tips or greens  around the edge of the planer to fill in. Be sure to work your design, before the soil freezes in your container.

Once you have the basic design, get creative! Peruse your yard for additional natural items such as sticks (Red twig dogwood), birch sticks, curly willow, Winterberry,  dried pods, and pine cones. These will add a vertical accent to your planter garden. To brighten your planters add colorful holiday picks, artificial berries and finish off with holiday lights. You can also insert LED lights sticks to light up your arrangement in those long winter nights.

Once you are finished arranging your winter planter continue to water until a freeze. Freezing temperatures will harden the soil surface and keep your container intact through the winter months. You can also spray the greens with a wilt stop which will help keep the foliage green.

A video is worth a thousand words. Here’s a demostration from Hawthorn garden center on how to make your own spruce tree top container the quick and easy way.  http://youtu.be/uNVrJeBLnVQ