Height in planter boxes

flogen

Posted here a while ago because I was trying to plant climbers in some boxes - which I was told was a waste of time.

So I’m looking for advice on what to put in there instead. The aim is to obscure as much of some ugly fencing as possible, so ideally looking for stuff that:

- Will grow as high and wide as possible
- Is evergreen
- Gives as much colour for as much of the year as possible

There’s three ~3x1ft boxes, they’re in a spot that gets decent sunshine through the day. Happy to go with any mixture of plants - especially if it gives a bit of variety through the year... once it’s not going to require too much micromanagement (as you can tell I’m not exactly an expert!)

And happy to wait for a better time of year to plant where applicable - I’ve been looking at the fence for a few years now so can deal with it for a while longer.

Cheers

RachelsCousin

Once you've decent sized containers you'll be able to grow climbers. Just about choosing the right ones as some won't do well.

You're containers are about 3ft*1ft*1ft? That's about 80 litres.

Tell us a bit more about the fence. What height is it? What's it made of? Can you add supports for the plants, or do they need to be able to 'cling' to support themselves?

Also, are there any other plants in the area? Some climbers can be invasive and take over if they're not kept in check. Growing them in a container will slow them down, but not completely.

And on the evergreen side, do you need evergreen? You'd get a lovely variety of colours during the year if you weren't set on that.

I think the problem I find with climbers in pots is that they don’t naturally have a regular source of water and nutrients and it takes time and commitment to water regularly. I have honeysuckle, ivy and clematis. They’re okay but don’t thrive. What I’m researching at the moment is a solar powered irrigation system for my pots for next spring. So it could be an option for you.

Another option would you consider a raised bed? Doesn’t have to be too wide just deep?

flogen

RachelsCousin wrote: »

Once you've decent sized containers you'll be able to grow climbers. Just about choosing the right ones as some won't do well.

You're containers are about 3ft*1ft*1ft? That's about 80 litres.

Tell us a bit more about the fence. What height is it? What's it made of? Can you add supports for the plants, or do they need to be able to 'cling' to support themselves?

It's about 6ft high - made of concrete panels (three sets, 6ft wide each with concrete posts between) so not much to 'cling' to, but easy enough to add supports.

Also, are there any other plants in the area? Some climbers can be invasive and take over if they're not kept in check. Growing them in a container will slow them down, but not completely.

There's some ivy coming from over a neighbour's wall that I routinely have to cut back. Other than that I have some planters in the pots that I'd put in before being told they may struggle - one (a solanum glasnevin) looks to be doing fairly well so far. The others I planted (wisteria, clematis and jasmine) aren't looking too great - to the point that I moved the wisteria... but I've left the others for now and will see if they just need a bit more time, or are better off being replaced by something that will do better.

And on the evergreen side, do you need evergreen? You'd get a lovely variety of colours during the year if you weren't set on that.

Well my main aim is to cover as much of the prison wall-esque fencing as I can, for as much of the year as possible (and with as much colour). So if it's a bit bare for a small part of the year that's not the end of the world - or if I could get a mix of things that take turns providing colour and foliage?

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

I think the problem I find with climbers in pots is that they don’t naturally have a regular source of water and nutrients and it takes time and commitment to water regularly. I have honeysuckle, ivy and clematis. They’re okay but don’t thrive. What I’m researching at the moment is a solar powered irrigation system for my pots for next spring. So it could be an option for you.

Another option would you consider a raised bed? Doesn’t have to be too wide just deep?

As mentioned above, I have 6ft high fencing - with each pot in front of one of the 6ft wide panels - so I really just want them as covered as possible... so I don't mind if something doesn't cover every inch, as long as it makes the whole thing look nicer.

I have considered a raised bed but the way the space is means I'd have to undo a lot of what's there and get in a fair bit more in order to build it up... so it's not quite a last resort but it's definitely something I want to avoid if I can!

Tree

I have those sorts of concrete fence on either side. On one side it's obscured by the things on the patio, bbq/potting tabel/chair set. I have a ~2x1x1ft planter with built in trellis brightly painted with some plants in it that I need to continuiously water. On the other side, a greenhouse obscures some and the middle section has wooden trellising and a raised bed in front (it's grass along that side) I've been doing annuals in it, so peas/sunflowers/beans/sweetpeas. IT's good enough for most of the year, and the wooden trellis is stil looking well even if nothing is growing at that time of year.

CelticRambler

Container-grown plants inherently need a certain amount of "micromanagement" because you're removing every opportunity for them to look after themselves; and then the more vegetative mass you want, the more you've got to do on their behalf.

It sounds like you'd be better of making a feature of the wall and the boxes themselves. How about painting the wall white, then adding a 6x6 foot trellis to each box (i.e. 1½ foot wider each side) painted in a really strong colour, e.g. fuschia pink or royal blue. That'll give you your all-year-round colour and you can take longer to figure out what plants will work for you & your circumstances.

You could make a very good display with some low-growing annuals that'd spill over the front and need only watering after you'd put them in in the spring; then some mid-sized greenery (maybe some ferns or grasses, still in their own pots); and something like sweet-peas growing up the trellis. In other words, move away from thinking of the plants as the permanent fixture, using the containers only as place-holders for different compositions throughout the year.

flogen

CelticRambler wrote: »

Container-grown plants inherently need a certain amount of "micromanagement" because you're removing every opportunity for them to look after themselves; and then the more vegetative mass you want, the more you've got to do on their behalf.

It sounds like you'd be better of making a feature of the wall and the boxes themselves. How about painting the wall white, then adding a 6x6 foot trellis to each box (i.e. 1½ foot wider each side) painted in a really strong colour, e.g. fuschia pink or royal blue. That'll give you your all-year-round colour and you can take longer to figure out what plants will work for you & your circumstances.

You could make a very good display with some low-growing annuals that'd spill over the front and need only watering after you'd put them in in the spring; then some mid-sized greenery (maybe some ferns or grasses, still in their own pots); and something like sweet-peas growing up the trellis. In other words, move away from thinking of the plants as the permanent fixture, using the containers only as place-holders for different compositions throughout the year.

Really like that idea. I have avoided painting the fence because once you do it once you're kind of forced to keep on top of it every few years... but even if I didn't do that I think a colourful trellis and a variety of plants would keep it interesting.

I know I could also add some boxes/baskets on the top - though I've read that they can be a lot of work to keep healthy too.

When you say putting in the likes of ferns and grasses in their own pots, I'm assuming you mean separate to the boxes I have (so leave them for the likes of the sweet peas and annuals you mention?

CelticRambler

flogen wrote: »

When you say putting in the likes of ferns and grasses in their own pots, I'm assuming you mean separate to the boxes I have (so leave them for the likes of the sweet peas and annuals you mention?

Yes ... no ... kinda! Separate pots, but those pots then put into the planter. It's one way to make up a composition of plants that need different conditions, and wouldn't normally grow together. You're only using the planter as a frame (or a giant decorative pot).

Can't immediately find any suitable images online, but in your case (and only as an example), you could sit a couple of 5-litre pots into the planter each with a water-retaining base and filled with an acid compost to give you a boggy-type environment; or filled with sand and stones to give you a savannah-type environment. Then fill the rest of the planter with ordinary soil and plant something like Alyssum and Lobelia at the front and Sweet Peas at the back.

If you do it like this, you can also start to think and plan ahead, and swap out the 5-litre plants at a certain point and put something else in, e.g. a pot of tulips that you started off in their own pot, in some other part of the garden. Your 5-litre pot is its own environment, even though its surrounded by an entirely different soil type, and at that size it should have more than enough nutrients for a year's worth of growth. It'd also be slightly larger than most of the plants you'd see on sale in Lidl or a garden centre, so if something took your fancy, you could buy it, repot it and drop it into place without disturbing the existing arrangement.

macraignil

I would not normally suggest bamboo for a garden since it can often spread, but since you are asking about planting the screening plant in a container anyway, would a suitable variety of bamboo be an idea. There are lots of different varieties to choose from and some have interesting colour to their stems and are evergreen but not very familiar with them myself. Some can get very tall so maybe avoid these and you might need to secure them to the fence somehow when they get established to avoid the container being blown over.