I bought some nice planters on sale, right now I’m thinking of putting my hostas in them.
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Costco - didn’t think of looking there. Duh! Took a look online and they have what I was thinking of. Might check to see if they have them in the store tomorrow - if not, order online.
These planters are pretty tall - folks suggest putting some rocks or bricks at the bottom as ballast. And I like the idea of lighted trees for the winter. I had a couple of trees that I gave away a few months ago that would have been perfect 
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This is what I bought from Bed, Bath, & Beyond, it’s deeply on sale, I think the store nearby was liquidating it’s inventory. Maybe Nantucket in dark brown color.
https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/mayne-nantucket-16-inch-square-planter/3252613
I have two outside wicker tall (probably 4 feet) basket/planters that I drop a hanging basket of ferns in each summer (I just remove the plastic hanging piece and the plastic pot gets hidden in the planter) - these have been known to tip over when windy or stormy so I put a couple of bricks in each one to keep them from falling
I have these in my backyard - I always do a combo of something low and something high in them. The something high is always canna lily, and I dig the rhizome out each fall and store them in my basement until spring. The something low varies from year to year (always an annual). This year I did dahlia and marigold.
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I use styrofoam peanuts and chunks to fill the bottom 1/2 of the huge planters I put by the front door.
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I used to put gravel in bottom of pots, but they get too heavy. So this year some of my planters (one is a big rubbermaid tub for lettuce) have plastic water bottles and small containers at bottom.
I have done a few different pots out front, usually clay-colored plastic. This year I opted for new white plants. I’d like a little bigger, but this size allows me to take inside when too cold in spring and summer.
The pink flowers are geraniums (I dig up plants and bring inside for the winter, propagating new plants from clippings). The purple are sweet alyssum (just looked it up on Seek app today) that I bought at ACE hardware store nursery… they’ve really grown this summer!
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I flip a plastic pot with holes upside down in my large planters.
I inherited my two out front that way a ton and got two light weight pots from Sam’s.
Here are some photos. The Sam’s pot is harder to see (the blue one in the last photo)
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I’m jealous of all of you who can get stuff to grow in planters. It’s so hot here 6 months of the year that I have to water pots twice a day to keep things alive. LOL. So I hardly have anything in planters.
Loving the pictures! They’re lovely!
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I bought a big pot for my front stoop with the intention of planting annuals, but never did. I like the planters with a mix of flowers - usually some that are very hard to kill like geraniums and marigolds and some trailing things like sweet potato vine. I do have two concrete planters that came with the house, I’ve never given them new soil. They have thyme, oregano and chives that overwinter and I add nasturtiums in the spring. Sometimes they get a little fertilizer.
I’m a +1 to styrofoam peanuts especially in small/medium sized planters. I also save broken pot/pottery pieces and will use some of those for the bottom of pots. I have used empty water bottles or smashed cans before too but sometimes I think water collects in them even when smashed. I’ve even used golf balls - lol - H had this huge bucket of them from a nearby practice range.
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Large chunks of wood, ideally rotting, are great for use in the bottom of large planters. The wood will absorb moisture and slowly release it back to the plants thus reducing the need to water. The wood will also release nutrients as it decomposes. It’s kind of like a mini hugelkultur bed.
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I listened to this interesting podcast when running last week
So it turns out one should plant bulbs at depth 3x the height of the bulb. Oopsy.
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I plant my bulbs very loosely, they still came up. In fact this is how I get my peonies to rebloom by accident, I didn’t plant mine very deep.
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Bring this thread up to say I finally cleaned up one melon bed and already planted my fall crop like frisée, lettuce, etc…
However my peony bed has melon plants sprouted from my compost. This is the biggest watermelon I have in the last 20 years. I normally can only grow Sugar Baby variety. So this is amazing in itself.
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We are finally getting an abundance of tomatoes. The bright yellow is Altai Orange!
(Got the seeds from here:
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We are getting tons of cherry tomatoes as usual. We ran out of regular tomatoes and H used some of the cherry tomatoes in a chutney he makes. Was complaining that the cherry tomatoes made the chutney sweet :). I love eating the cherry tomatoes as a snack!
One lonely little eggplant is growing amidst all these tomatoes. Don’t know if it will even make it!
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It’s the time of the year that I have tomatoes on the kitchen windowsill, a bowl of small grape type tomatoes, a big bowl of small-medium tomatoes and I’m providing a neighbor down the street with tomatoes for the week!!! Haven’t made sauce with any yet and have just been eating them and cooking with them. Hopefully a tomato pie goes in the oven sometime this week!
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What’s tomato pie? Can you share recipe?
This is my go-to. Sometimes I make slight revisions.
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