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Garden design focal points: Projects spilt pot

David Gallacher

In Landscaping and garden design, creating a focal point is important. For this,  a spilled flower pot is a great idea. 

You can create an astonishing waterfall like appearance from flowers, using a range of plants you can maintain the effect for most of the year

Picking a Spot

Pick a spot which receives shade in the afternoon and you want more focus on. In the middle of your garden, or on the lawn from where it will be visible, you can also place it on a table or use an old bicycle to spill it from there.

Choosing a pot

A pot with a wide mouth and rounded or circular shape are perfect so you can maintain the plant easily, recycle pots those are broken, paint them with attractive colours.

Colours

To make this as a focal point of your garden use warm colours like red, yellow, orange, purple as they are best to highlight anything. You can also use cool colours like blue.

Planting

Planting is akin to the way we plant in containers. Just dig the spot where you want to plant it to ¼ of the size of the pot and bury it. Fill it half with potting soil and keep the plants draping down to create a spilling effect.

Flowers

All the flowers you use in hanging basket works well for this— geraniums, lobelias, petunias, alyssum, daisies, and begonias are wonderful cascading flowers.

Even spring bulbs like muscari, or alpines we used aubretia  

How to create a spill pot

All you need is a flower pot, some potting soil, and a few plants

 You can make a spill pot in just a few easy steps:

1. Loosen the soil  in an area about one foot wide and two feet long.(to suit container)

2. Add potting soil or compost to the entire area, to enrich the soil and hold in moisture.

3. Bury your pot about halfway in the soil, making sure the broken part is hidden.

4. Plant your flowers in the garden soil, but tuck a couple of plants inside the rim of the pot, to give the appearance of spilling out.

5. Care for them as you would any other garden plants with regular water and an occasional dose of balanced organic fertiliser.