Plant a Container French Garden
The traditional French garden is large in size, with shrubs shaped into distinct shapes, along with well kept flower beds frequently found inside of the shrub hedge borders. If such a garden is appealing but impractical, a variation of this style garden can easily be duplicated on your porch or patio. Containers large enough to hold the flowers and small shrubs can easily be purchased from your local nursery. Cement containers with wide openings are the best to use here, provided they have holes at the bottom to allow for drainage. Garden soil can be mixed with compost and fertilizer to encourage the fullest blossoms during the growing season. To create a container garden in the French style, allow at least one large pot that is 16″ to 20″ deep per small shrub like wintergreen, azalea, or other evergreen bush, plus several box window containers for the flowers for each bush pot.
First of all, arrange the pots in the desired form on your patio or porch. The pot holding the shrub will be in the center, with the smaller pots surrounding it. This will allow for walking space on your porch or patio. You can also use medium sized pots for individual plants like snapdragons, pansies, marigolds, scabiosa, lobelia, and petunias to surround the shrub. Pour a thin layer of pebbles at the bottom of each pot, then pour in the soil. Make sure the soil is dry and not wet before planting the flower and shrubs. In the first pot, plant one of your evergreen shrubs. In the smaller pots, or box planters surrounding the shrub, plant the smaller flower. Pansies look beautiful when planted together in a “bed” in the pot. In the next container, plant petunias. In the last box, plant marigolds. Have the boxes arranged to form a triangle around the pot containing the shrub. In you next large pot placed at least three feet from the first one, plant an azalea bush. Use more window box shaped planters to surround this one, or medium sized pots containing snapdragons, lupines, foxglove, or phlox. If there is enough room, you can create a third bush and flower combination. Pick another evergreen like boxwood or arborvitae. For flowers, plant scabiosa in one box, lobelia in the second one, and bachelor buttons in the third one. The pink, white, and blue colors of the scabiosa and bachelor buttons will complement each other beautifully.
French gardens also have a fountain and statuary of some kind, but you can select smaller versions of a fountain, or even substitute a birdbath for your container French garden. Small statues of fairies, gargoyles, and dragons can also be used, placed right at the corners of each small plot of flowers. You will still have room for a garden chair and small table next to your container garden so you can enjoy it. If you already have any hanging pots full of flowers like geraniums on your porch, leave those up for an additional touch.
Image Credit: I Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
