Container combo
Tired of terra cotta? How about a Tub o’ Tunias?
We’re talking unique containers: Old bathtubs, suitcases, sneakers and hockey skates! Anything that will hold soil and you can put drain holes in can be used as a container. Use a nail spike or a drill to create drain holes. You can recycle those ugly plastic pots you get from the nursery by scuffing them up with sand paper and spray painting them. You need to scuff them up so the paint has something to hold onto.
Garage sales offer killer places to scope out unique containers for cheap prices. Go for natural containers and use hollowed logs.
A log planter.
Thrillers, fillers and spillers! The Thriller is your main plant; think Big, Bold and Beautiful. Usually this is a single stunner, the filler is the plant(s) with foliage or flowers that help accent your Thriller. The spiller is your trailing plant(s) which falls over the side of your container. Keep color and texture in mind with these.
Here’s a recipe for a 14-inch container I created that’s airing on 
WCCO-TV:
The Thriller: 1 plant Purple Millet, 2 orange (purple eye) Osteospermum, 1 purple Osterospermum, 1 purple sweet potato vine, 1 Swedish Ivy and 1 ‘White Nancy’ lamium (which is a perennial here and can be planted in the ground this Fall).
Flower combo from Proven Winners
I can wander the aisles of a garden center for hours. I don’t know if I can’t decide or I just LOVE wandering the aisles! There are now some garden centers that have “recipes” set out for folks to use to create their own container gardens. These are a great idea. I found a couple websites you can check out, too:
I recently read an article about how much bacteria is on those bags and it was frightening. We use them for all kinds of things and then don't always think to wash them.
It's easy to just toss them in with a load of clothes or, if they're the more plastic type, hand wash them.
