Container Gardening Explained, Pt. 2

Let's Talk Combos

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Previously on Garden Study: Consider the Ornamental Grass, The Glory of Square Foot Gardening, Garden Mistakes Were Made, and The Patience of Gardening with Kids.

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I did Container Gardening Explained, Pt. 1 as the first mega issue of Garden Study, and I think I’ve been a little anxious to return for Part 2 — how will I fit everything else in one post? But Garden Study is supposed to be fun (for you, as readers, but also for me) and non anxiety-producing, so I’m going to treat this as Pt. 2 of who knows how manyand tackle something I’m still learning so much about: ~~COMBOS~~

To be fair, we did talk filler/thriller/spiller in Part 1, and I listed a whole bunch of plants that fall into each category. But how do you know which ones to put together? And how many of them should you buy? And how close to smash them? Next year when it’s planting time I’ll do a post all about how many and how closely to smash, but at this point in the season we’re just thinking future color projects.

Personally, I think of picking combos like putting together an outfit when you’re in elementary school. You’re thinking about matching, but you can run with a pretty hilarious idea of what matches. You have a favorite shirt or pants or skirt that you wear with everything. A lot is based on feel. And sometimes things look over- or under-sized, awkward or unkempt, but it doesn’t matter because you’re a kid and you look awesome.

So I’m going to show you some of my favorite combos (and some of my lovely quasi-fails) so we can admire and learn from them the same way we admire and learn from others’ fashion when we’re kids.

[Note: If any of these terms are unfamiliar, Pt. 1 has a great glossary at the end — plus you can always ask in the comments, we’re a judgment-free garden question zone. Also I’m going to hold off on hanging baskets for now and make them their own future post.]

Container #1: Let’s start with an early winner — one of my first ever containers. For general reference, I’m in Zone 8, with mild summer heat, and all of these containers are full or partial sun combos. (I have several shade pots but they weren’t feeling particularly photogenic today)