I always love seeing the big fall planters start to pop up in shops around this time of year. The vibrant yellows and oranges, with little pops of purple and rust. Although…I’m not a big fan of the prices. A decent sized planter can been $50-90 a pop! I was lamenting about this the other day, when my mom suggested I learn to make one myself. Saving money and playing around with flowers – you can count me in! She’s the same one that taught me how to make pumpkin flower vases, holiday arrangements and even my wedding flowers.
She came over and helped me put all the pieces together to make a big whiskey barrel planter for our front door.
Touches of yellow, orange, red and purple. Exactly what I wanted at a fraction of the price.
I set it up on our front porch with one of my antique chair finds, my favourite fall lanterns and a big burgundy mum.
Every time I see this on the porch, it definitely gets me feeling ready for fall!
The planter took less than 10 minutes to put together and cost less than $15. Not bad for a quick afternoon project!
Here is a cost breakdown:
| Yellow Fall Mum | $4.00 |
| Purple Devotion Trachelium | $2.25 |
| Tiger Eye Gold Rudbeckia | $2.25 |
| Decorative Cabbage | $2.25 |
| Decorative Red and Purple Peppers | $2.00 |
| Decorative Yellow Peppers | $2.00 |
| $14.75 |
My mom picked up all the plants for us at various home improvement stores and grocery stores. She focused on two main colours – yellow and purple, and then worked on finding plants that fit into that colour family or complimented it.
The yellow mums were just little buds when we first got them, which is a sign you should get a few good weeks out of them! A mum will fill a good portion of your planter and provide a nice background for the other plants.
The Purple Devotion Trachelium is a wispy purple plant that should grow up to give the planter some height.
I love the sunny flowerheads of this Tiger Eye Gold Rudbeckia. So happy looking!
The decorative cabbage has a few browned edges and you can pull them out as they get more brown. The centre of the cabbage has a lovely purple hue, to play off the rest of the purple in the planter.
The decorative peppers were my favourite touch. I spotted them in many of the planters around Unionville last week and texted my mom a pick of them. Little did I know she’d already picked some up for our planting party, ha!
The planter I used was the plastic whiskey barrel I used throughout the summer to grow our peppers and onions. I pulled out the old plants and tilted the soil up with a spade. If you are starting with a new container, no need to fill the whole thing up with soil. You can put a shallower pot upside down in the planter to fill up some space, and then add the soil until you reach the top lip.
Then it was just a matter of playing around with the placement of each plant. We worked together to dig the holes and loosely place the plants. Then we could move them around slightly to get the right angle before packing the soil in tighter. For plants like the cabbage and peppers, we titled them out slightly to have them facing towards the front of the planter instead of straight up. A big watering right after you’re done with help the plants adjust to their new planter.
I’m really happy with what we came up with in the end. The fun colours are a nice contrast on our white and black farmhouse.
Only one more day until autumn is officially here. I think I’m ready!
Love it! My boyfriend & I are swooning over the pepper plants 🙂