Container Planting

When we moved in, we inherited several outdoor planters full of dirt. We added the dirt to the compost pile and tossed the containers aside. I gave several away, threw out the broken ones, and the kids used the remaining pair as outdoor chairs for most of this summer. Finally, though, I decided to put them to use for their intended purpose:

In the center is a small plant of hardy chrysanthemums that I picked up for a few bucks at a local nursery. Those should give color throughout the fall, and I may try to tuck them into a cutting garden bed to overwinter and see if we can save them for next year. 

Around the edges of the container is some pennyroyal that I have been growing in pots this year. It was really tiny transplant when I bought it, but now it is big enough to divide into smaller pieces to set around the edge of the pot. Hopefully it will fill in and we'll have a lot more of the trailing stems cascading over the edge of the container. 

We now have two matching containers:

I guess I don't really care if the mums make it through the winter, but the pennyroyal is a useful herb, and I'd eventually like it to fill in the entire container. Until it does, though, we can switch out the planting in the center to change with the seasons (pansies in the spring, marigolds in the summer, etc.).