How to Use Pots for Your Landscaping Project

Whether you’re a professional landscape architect or just someone designing his own yard, you will definitely find that using garden pots and planters can be advantageous in more ways than one. Let’s look at some of the stuff that you can do with pots and planters but before that, an introduction to pot types.

Choosing the Right Pot

Choosing the planter that is the best fit for your design can be a chore in itself. So here’s a rundown of the basics.

Terra cotta – Terra cotta pots work with just about any kind of design but the problem with clay pots is that, while they are cheap, they break easily so keep that in mind.

Granite – Pots made of granite are classy, elegant, durable and mighty expensive. The shiny speckled black finish of a granite planter can match just about any design theme.

Slate – Slate is a natural stone and its beauty lies in its natural colour with varying shades of red, green, yellow and orange. These work well with rustic themes.

Concrete – Concrete can be heavy and can crack easily if not made using high quality standards. Your best bet for concrete pots are reinforced concrete pots which are more durable and lightweight. Concrete pots go well with classic themes.

Fiberglass pots – Fiberglass pots are lightweight and often come with a shiny paint finish. When buying fiberglass pots, avoid the thin and brittle varieties, instead look for good quality ones that won’t crack easily. Fiberglass pots work well with contemporary themes.

When you are choosing pots, buy pots and planters that are big enough to be visible. Often, designers make the mistake of getting small pots that hardly ever get noticed because they are too small. Keep in mind the size of the space that you are designing for.

When to Use Pots and Planters for Landscaping

You don’t use pots for your design just for the sake of using pots. Pots and planters are functional. They have roles in the greater scheme of things. Here are some functions that pots and planters can play.

Highlighting a Doorway

 

You can use pots to highlight a doorway. You can place two tall pots beside an entrance to enhance its visibility. The tall pots will draw people’s attention to the door making it more prominent.

Control Pedestrians

 

You can place planters along pathways to help guide pedestrians. Planters can also serve as a barrier between pedestrian and any vehicular traffic. In an urban landscape, the planters also help to add foliage in a sea of hardscaping.

Add Colour Where Colour is Lacking

If you are designing for a living space like a patio or a garden with furniture, it is always to a good idea to add a hint of colour to lighten up the mood. If there is no space to plant, garden pots and planters can always come into the design and house colourful blooms.

Providing Privacy

Get some planters and fill them up with tall perennials and you’ve got a barrier. If you are designing for a café and you’ve set some tables outside or if you just want to have brunch on your garden away from the prying eyes of neighbors and passersby, tall perennials in planters provide the privacy that you want.

Control Trees

 

Maybe you have a rare kind of palm that you want in your design but you’re worried the roots could destroy the surroundings structures? You can put it in a very large pot. Just make sure that that large pot is durable enough to withstand the vigorous root growth of the tree.

These are just some of the ways that you can use pots for your landscaping project. There are still a lot of other ways that you can use planters.You just need to be creative.

Author Profile – Rob

Rob is Content Manager for IOTA Australia. He’s always had a flair for writing ever since he was young .When he’s not writing about gardening, landscaping, design, and whatnot , you’ll find him playing with the cats.

 

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

garden pots, pots landscaping, small pots