Container Garden Design. Thriller, Fillers and Spillers!
Large containers and window boxes are great assets for beautifying front porches or stoops. They make are entrances much more inviting.. and well—homier!
There are “tried and true” ways to design containers using the Thriller, Spiller, and Filler, method! This method adds height and variety to containers and gives them that professional “garden center”look .
Thrillers are exactly what they sound like: they add height and should be the main focus of any container. Usually, one thriller is just fine, but in a window box you might want two in the center back of your box. Spillers are cascading plants at the edge of the container that tumble over and create softness and flow. Fillers—as they sound— are bulkier plants, medium height, that fill in the gaps between your Thriller and your Spiller. Both round planters and window boxes can use the same idea. When planting a window box, the best advice is to plant a front row and a back row. This allows for a nice, full, professional look. Your back row should be the taller plants, so check your tags at the garden center to make sure that they’re not taller than two feet. Your shorter, stockier “fillers” can be in the front along with any spillers you might want to cascade over.
Always make sure you use moist potting soil in your containers. Also, containers need more watering than plants in the ground —and even if there is a light rain, you should water with a bucket, hose or watering can twice a week in the heat of the summer. Many people think a spritz of rain will do it, but it really only moistens the top soil and never gets to the roots. The last thing you can do to make your containers look amazing is to pinch back any long leggy stems to keep producing more flowers.
Some liquid fertilizer or Epsoma dry plant food sprinkled once a month is also going to make them curb appeal-ready.
Have fun and enjoy! The passers-by will really love the view you gave them!
