Introducing plants to your patio space can have a huge impact — but for many, a trip to the garden store is overwhelming. We’ve provided a step-by-step guide to creating beautiful, planted arrangements for your apartment patio. You don’t need a green thumb, just pick the right plants and don’t forget to water them!
Selecting Your Container
- Assess your patio layout and determine how you will arrange your planters. You may want to create a grouping of different-sized planters in one corner, or you select
a matching pair to flank your patio door. - It’s OK to mix and match containers but pick a single color or texture — this will make your collection look intentional and sophisticated.
- Choose lightweight containers and smaller bags of potting soil to more easily transport and store your supplies.
Selecting Your Plants
- Before selecting plants, determine how much sun your patio receives. Check it at different times of day. Depending on the orientation of your patio, you will want plants that either like full sun (6+ hours of direct sun per day) or that are happy in a little shade (4-6 hours of direct sun per day). If you aren’t sure what you need, it is safest to pick something that can withstand full sun.
- When shopping for plants, each should have a tag showing information about sun preferences, watering needs, bloom time and color, etc.
- You can always take your container to the garden shop and ask for help. Pull plants over to the side to see how they look together — this will also help you figure out how many plants you need to fill your container.
- Sometimes — one large plant is all you need. Look for a plant with a mounded shape and an interesting flower or leaf.
Texture
Select plants with a variety of textures — some light and airy, some with large glossy or fuzzy leaves — this gives the arrangement weight and adds interest.
Color
Only bring in one or two flowering elements and let the rest of your arrangement be varying shades of green.
Smell/Taste
Incorporate fresh herbs for an arrangement that smells lovely and can also save you a trip to the grocery store.
Planting Your Container
① Lay down a sheet or garbage bag on your patio while you plant — cleanup will be a breeze.
② Use broken up styrofoam, plastic water bottles, or pool noodles to take up space under your planting soil. These materials are lightweight and help with drainage. You can even repurpose the plastic containers your plants came in as a filler.
③ Add a layer of potting soil over your filler.
④ Remove each plant from its plastic container. You can squeeze the container or roll it on its side to loosen the rootball and soil.
⑤ If you have multiple plants of each variety, group them together in the pot. Fill each section of the container with one type of plant, rather than mixing them.
⑥ Start by placing your tall Thriller plants in the back of the container.
⑦ Next, add your Filler around the base of the Thriller.
⑧ Position your Spiller plants in the front of the container. They can be centered or off to one side. If you are planting two matching containers, push the spiller to one side and let the arrangements mirror one another.
⑨ Take a step back and look at your arrangement. Three plant types is plenty to make even the largest planter look great, but if you want to add more you can. Let your Thriller, Filler, Spiller be the stars and tuck another plant or two on the side or around the base of the Thriller as an accent.
⑩ When you’ve added all your plants, use your potting soil to fill in around the plants’ root balls.
⑪ Move the arrangement into place on your patio and water thoroughly.
⑫ Don’t forget about your garden! Plants on balconies may have greater wind exposure than plants on the ground and should be watered regularly.
Need More Planting Ideas?
These websites include countless container garden combinations, conveniently organized into recipe cards with pictures and plant names.
tedsgardens.com/garden-center/container-garden-recipes/
provenwinners.com/container-gardening/container-recipes/search
