Creating a little potted garden for our front porch.  I started with some pictures for inspiration and hit the garden section!  This are what I came home with…

The pot is actually a metal ice/drink bucket I bought from Target a few years back.  I drilled some holes through the bottom for drainage and voila!  A cute pot!

These are the specifics of the plants I purchased.  (The Verbena didn’t come with one; but it’s the flowery plant pictured above)

When I got home and started the process I realized I didn’t have as much potting soil left as I had thought.  So I did some research (i.e. Pinterest searching) on fillers for pots to make them lighter; but really only because I wanted to fill up some of the space in the pot before pouring the soil in, not planning on moving the pot often once it’s planted.

This is what I came up with.  I put the plastic containers that the plants came in into the bottom of the pot and then filled in with the potting soil.  You can also use plastic bottles, torn up pool noodles, packing peanuts, rocks…there were a lot of options; but the plant containers is what I had on hand.

Anyway, now for the fun part!  The planting!  I started with the fern and placed it in the back right quadrant, then some of the verbena in the back left quadrant, then the sweet potato vine in the front right quadrant, and, lastly, the two hen & chicks in the front left quadrant.

(here’s my process in photos)

I then found the perfect spot for it, watered it, and stood back to enjoy my handy work!

Here it is!  What do you guys think?!  I am excited to see it as it grows and fills in!