Using Metal Outdoor Planters For Variety, Longevity and Vintage Appeal for Your Garden Planting Schemes
Using planters in the garden, planted with flowers, shrubs or foliage plants, is a lovely way to bring variety and flexibility to your outdoor living space.
Planters in general can, if carefully chosen, actually make a positive contribution to your garden living space and provide additional decor. The problem can be, though, that the cheaper planters, especially those made of plastic, can look weather beaten, chipped and ugly in a couple of seasons.
A planter with a short life span is a false economy, so it does make sense, from a financial as well as decorous point of view, to invest in quality and pay a bit more for planters which will last many years. You can buy a long lasting planter that also looks very attractive and provides a long term home for outdoor plantings.
Using metal planters outdoors is one way of ensuring a potential long life span for your planters. Metal, of course, does require occasional care and maintenance when used outdoors, but it is worthwhile. Using metal can bring some attractive benefits of sturdiness and longevity, and when used imaginatively by the designer and craftsman.
The way metal can be used in garden planters can vary, and it can also be used successfully with other materials for a combination that looks good and is practical. In the top picture, for example, at first glance you see a wooden trellis, which is made of cedar. This provides the decor contribution, while inside is a metal backing which reinforces the planter, thus helping both with sturdiness and helping to make it long lasting.
In other examples of metal used in planter design, the metal itself can provide both a practical and decor element. The unusual, colorful mosaic design planters in the middle picture also incorporate some attractive metal scroll work. This is a successful use of metal and ceramic in unison, which will look good on a patio, terrace or other part of the garden. The last picture shown reveals how good metal can look when the designer incorporates lots of curves, and also illustrates how to use coco moss as a lining for containers and hanging baskets.
