Another Spring Planter

I had another inspiration, and plenty of left over potting soil! After another trip to the garden center I happily gathered my materials. I already had the planter, you can never own too many. I picked up some more yellow Pansies, curly Pussy Willow, and jute twine.

Once again, this pot is big for the space that Pansy roots need.

The easy solution is to take the plastic pots the Pansies came in and scrunch them into the bottom of the pot before adding the potting soil.

I filled the planter fairly close to the top with potting soil. This is because Pansies are short flowers and I want to be able to see them once they are planted. Of course, some of the dirt will spill over the edge when you are planting, but this is gardening, expect to get a little dirty.

The next step is to tuck in the Pansies. Gently. And then fill in the empty pockets with potting soil. I always water at this point too, because they need it and I find it helps to set the soil.







And here comes the tricky part...arranging the Pussy Willows. Arguably, this would be easier with regular straight Pussy Willows, but I'm a sucker for the "curly" type of anything!

I separated the Pussy Willows into three groups based on their size and color. I wanted the groups to have a similar length and look. Making sure that each grouping had close to the same amount of open Pussy willow buds.

When placing the Pussy Willow grouping into the planter the stems should be close to each other and the rim of the planter. As seen here...

Imagine that the circumference of the planter is divided into thirds. It's at those spots that you will insert your Pussy Willow groupings. It's a bit of an unruly task.

Once I got the first two groupings in I temporarily tied them off with twine to help them hold their place while I readied the third grouping.

After I placed the third grouping in place I tied it in with the other two loosely. This is the part where I take a good look at the "tee-pee" I've made with the Pussy Willow branches and see what needs to be finessed, cut out, or wrangled into submission! In this case, there were a few branches lower down that were going in the wrong direction, so I snipped them off. I managed to find a better spot for them, where they arched in the proper direction.

Once I had all the Pussy Willow branches arranged how I wanted them, I tied them off tightly at the top with a simple piece of jute twine, making sure to snip off any excess. Now, you could go big and add a showy ribbon. If you decide to go that route, a few caveats. First, make sure the ribbon is in a color that compliments your flowers and or other door front ornamentation. When in doubt, use a cream color. Second, please use a wide ribbon. I mean 2 inches in width, minimum. Anything smaller will look wimpy and insignificant. Personally, I like the attention to be on the flowers and branches so I used just that simple piece of twine.

And, voila! Here it is finished! I hope you like it.