I would like to decorate my front door entrance on the outside. I live in a small rental house and I was thinking about buying a large planter/pot and putting a few flowers i.e. geraniums in them. I might put a planter on each side of the door. How do I keep the planter from falling over if the wind blows? I have never done any type of gardening and would like simple advise.
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Use heavy ceramic/clay pots and you won't have the trouble of things tipping over...Also keep the pots fairly wide & low to the ground. Geraniums grow best in the sun - so make sure your location is right.
Ceramic pots are a great idea, but if you want to save money, buy the plastic pots that look ceramic at the dollar store & simply fill the bottoms with crushed rock (or a brick) before adding the soil. Always make sure you have a drainage hole in any pot you use & a plate under it to prevent messes. Put in potting soil & if you really want your flowers to grow, buy fertilizer. Make sure the flowers you plant together are compatible with each other, for example, you don't want a plant that needs little water with a thirsty plant, or a shady plant mixed with sunny plants. Ask question & since you are just starting out, buy plants that are the easiest to take care of. If you want to re-plant your boxes every year & want lots of color, buy "Annuals"... if you want them to come back yearly, buy "Perennials". For more advice, simply call any local plant nursery, they will be happy to answer any questions you might have.
* If you want to make your own cheep planter boxes, all you need is a hammer & some small nails. The people at the lumber store will cut the wood for you. Just measure the area & draw up your plans with measurements & take them in. Ask them what wood to use & have fun!
---> The following idea will drive all of the "hard-core" gardeners crazy, but I just HATE to garden & will do just about anything to avoid it, but of course, I want my home to look nice & I love flowers... I have a several brick flowers bed in front of my home. I'm going to weed them & put down landscaping cloth (to avoid any more weeding) then plant real ivy & greens, then "plant" silk flowers from the dollar store. These silks are not of the highest quality, but yesterday, after talking to another like-minded lady at the dollar store, she said she had bought flowers there last year & even through the UV rays, the heat & the rain, the fake flowers lasted for a whole season. She simply through them out in the fall. Only $20 for 6 months of color added to your house! You could also change them out every month or so... say, tulips & daffodils in the spring & daises & hydrangea in the summer for example.
* You have to get very close to notice they aren't real as long as you mix them with other real plants. And just think about all the water you'll be conserving!
I used the resin type pots that are made out of this stuff like a thick hard foam. They were much less expensive than the large clay or pottery ones and will not freeze and crack and burst in the winter like the clay ones. I used the 2 liter drink bottles that were going to the recycle bin as liners for the bottoms as they should make for good drainage and not create alot of extra weight like rocks would.
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