Friday, May 1, 2020

My Tips For Planting Pretty Flower Boxes

We made it to another Friday! And today isn’t just any Friday; it’s May Day. When my brother and I were younger, we would wake up on May 1st to a May Day basket hanging on our door. Usually, it was filled with useful items like sunscreen or school supplies to get us through the end of the year, but it always had a few other fun surprises as well. I’m not sure how the tradition started, but my mom would receive a May Day basket on her door May 1st growing up, so I love that she kept that tradition alive with us. One of the most fun parts about it was forgetting about the tradition until opening the door to discover the basket.

While I didn’t open my door to discover a May Day basket this morning, I have made coming and going from my house (you know, for going on walks and my twice a month trip to the store) even prettier by planting my flower boxes. A couple of years ago, I expressed to my parents that I wanted to make my apartment’s balcony a little prettier, and window boxes were my solution. For Easter that year, I got gardening supplies and money to purchase the planters and flowers to fill them. Now, it has become a bit of a tradition to plant these and display them outside my front door. 

When planting these this year, I filmed the process to share with one of our publications at work, The Cottage Journal, and the step by step instructions were shared on their Instagram stories. Since those are gone now, I thought I’d share the steps taken to accomplish this project here for y’all, and I’ll likely update my Instagram stories with the content I created for their team as well. 


My outfit: Top // Jean Shorts // Headband (similar here, here, and here) // Shoes // Watch // Ring

Before I fully get into telling y’all what I did, I will say that my plant choosing is based solely on what I think will look pretty together. It probably would have been beneficial to do some research to discover which plants actually do well together and to double-check that they need the same amount of sunlight and water, but alas for me, it was all about the appearance of the planters. Speaking of which, mine are technically made to go on a deck rail and not screw into a window. I’ll be linking lots of different flower planters below, but make sure you check to see if each will actually work in your space before purchasing them. Ultimately, I end up placing mine directly on the front porch instead of our deck railing, so it’s nice that I have ones that can stand up fine on their own! 

Step One: Gather Your Materials
While I know sometimes it is easier to head over to Home Depot to grab your supplies, now would be a great time to intentionally buy the flowers you hope to use from a local garden shop. As I mentioned above, I tend to pick mine out based specifically on appearance. I like a lot of colors and varying heights, which also influenced my decisions. I also try to choose plants for the side that I know will drape decently. This year to fill those spots, I opted for Petunias and Dusty Miller. 



Step Two: Fill Your Planters About Halfway With Soil
I used soil specifically made for planters and went ahead and filled my planters up around halfway full with the soil. If you notice that you chose plants that may be a little bit shorter than some of mine, you may want to put more soil in, but that will be up to you as you go! 


Step Three: Sort Your Plants And Determine A General Arrangement
This step is one of the most fun ones for me since I can try a bunch of different combinations and determine which will look best. I basically mark where things are going to go by placing my determined arrangement order in front of the boxes and working my way down when it comes to actually planting them. I knew I wanted my boxes to match, so once I determined the arrangement for one of the planters, I did the same thing with the other. 



Step Four: Place Plants Into Soil
Time to get your hands dirty. Go ahead and take all of your plants out of their plastic pots and begin breaking apart the roots as you nestle them into the soil. This will (I think) help them to grow better. 



Step Five: Fill The Planters With A Layer Of Top Soil
After all of the plants have been placed more topsoil is necessary to keep them in place and hopefully allow them to grow. I usually dump a lot of soil in and then spread it around with my hands, patting it down as I go. 



Step Six: Display And Water
Last but not least, carry your finished flower boxes to their resting place and give them a nice drink of water! I try to water mine with about a watering can of water each every day. I’ll prune any dead flowers I see during that time and keep my fingers crossed that they continue to look healthy.





I’ve included some various planter options and cute gardening supplies below for y’all in case you’re interested in undertaking this quick and easy project this weekend! 


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