The August Urn O' Green & Magenta

My First Serious Crack at Planting a Container

"Serious Crack" sounds like an oxymoron ... Anyway, this is written out as steps, but it's not exactly a how-to. It's really more of a here's-what-I-did. Skip down to the bottom of the post for a list of the plants that went into this container planting.

Step 1: Make your husband chase you around your local garden center with a cart full of plants, potting soil and an urn planter. This step will take a good hour or so and should involve lots of oohing-and-aahing to your husband, hemming-and-hawing to yourself, and back-and-forthing around the store with husband and cart in tow.

Step 2: Fork over lots of money for said goods (definitely enlisting the aid of Hubby's military discount and your birthday money from your grandmother).

Step 3: Thank Hubby profusely for his invaluable help and "patience," then pile everything into the car and when you get home drag it all back out again yourself. You don't want to push the poor man too far.

Step 4: The next day, don't get up at 5 AM, because that's just silly. Instead, wait 'til 6 and then take your sweet, sweet time drinking your coffee and reading your gardening magazines in the comfy chair with your huge, cuddly cat. Then cook up some bacon and eggs while you complain to yourself about how chilly it is in the house this morning.

Step 5: Now that it's around 8 AM and the sun is starting to cook your house, it must be the perfect time to do some manual labor while standing between the house and the sun. Let's get sweaty!

Step 6: Drill a drainage hole in the bottom of the urn. Good on you for remembering to do this step before filling up the container with stuff!

Step 7: Dump some rocks into the bottom of the (lightweight resin) urn to add weight for stability, to help with drainage, and to fill in some extra space that would otherwise be a waste of potting soil.

Step 8: Fill the urn two-thirds full with potting soil, plus lots of perlite because good drainage is important.

Step 9: Dump about 2 tablespoons of water crystals in there, 'cause it's flippin' hot this summer and you don't want to be out there watering this thing twice a day. Plus: over-watering protection! Speaking of watering, now you need to do so. Water the mixture thoroughly and watch the crystals expand! Wheee!

Step 10: Dear lord, are we at ten steps already? So that you can arrange and rearrange them until you're satisfied with the configuration, stick your new plants into the urn while they're still in their plastic nursery pots. Then surprise yourself by having arranged everything perfectly the first time. Photograph the arrangement from several angles and pat yourself on the back for being such a brilliant artist. You weren't really surprised, were you? Nah, I didn't think so.

Step 11: Take everything back out again. Well, just the plants. Not the soil and other stuff. Duh.

Step 12: Carry this message to other addicts ... Wait, no. Just ignore the step numbers.

Step 13: Starting with the tallest plant for the center of the arrangement, remove that sucker from its pot and loosen the rootball yadda yadda yadda. PUT IT IN THE URN.

Step 14: Here's where it gets tricky ...  PUT THE REST OF THE PLANTS IN THE URN, TOO.

Step 15: You get the idea. Really, the most difficult part is jamming that many plants into a 20" pot. I mean, you really have to jam them in there! ... But then it looks fabulous.

Step 16: WATER. Water until a big ol' puddle forms under the urn.

Step 17: Dust the dirt from the foliage and wipe down the urn. Set that mother out in the sunshine with the less sun-tolerant plants facing roughly northeast. Admire. Take more photographs of your fantastic creation. It really was worth it. You are done.

Step 18: ... Nah, you're not done. Pretty soon the mum and the coreopsis will pop open with lots more flowers and you'll totally need to take pictures of that, right? Plus, this big ol' thing is gonna need some more water in a day or so. Then there's deadheading and pruning to keep everything nice-looking and within bounds. Then, eventually the perennials will fade and you'll need to decide what to do with them. No, you're not done yet. You'll never really be done. And that's okay, 'cause that's just gardening for you.

What's in The August Urn O' Green & Magenta?

By gosh, I'll tell you.

Purple Fountain Grass

Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum'

White-Flowering Heather
Calluna vulgaris

Magenta-Flowering Hardy Mum
Chrysanthemum morifolium

Coral Bells
Heuchera 'Melting Fire'

Coreopsis
Coreopsis hybrid Big Bang™ 'Mercury Rising'
Burgundy Periwinkle
Vinca minor 'Atropurpurea'
Dragon's Blood Stonecrop
Sedum spurium 'Dragon's Blood'

... Butterflies included!