Looking for the perfect way to celebrate spring & show someone how much you care? Let me share how to make a blooming garden basket!
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Make someone’s springtime extra special with a blooming garden basket! One of my favorite gift ideas is centered around the concept of a European Dish Garden. I am going to use this concept to design this easy blooming garden basket! It just might end up being a gift for myself!
What is A European Dish Garden?
By definition, a European Dish Garden combines green and blooming plants. The secret behind a European Dish Garden is in the way it is put together and what types of plants are used. The plants are left in their individual pots and grouped together in a single container. Leaving the plants in their individual containers and arranging them in the container (pot, basket or ceramic type) is a great time saver!
HOW TO MAKE A BLOOMING GARDEN BASKET
Follow these simple steps and you’ll be able to create a beautiful blooming garden basket in no thyme!
CHOOSE YOUR CONTAINER
The first step is to choose your container. You can use any type of container you want. A word of caution: please take into consideration where your finished garden will be placed. If the container is not water tight, you will want to add a liner or something that will catch the water so it doesn’t leak on to the furniture.
For this blooming dish garden, I wanted to use this celadon green vintage basket.
To protect it, I lined the inside of the basket with plastic wrap. I also placed the plants in speed covers, like the ones picture below, before adding the plants to the basket.
growers pots covered in speed covers
CHOOSE YOUR PLANTS
Since I was putting this basket together to celebrate Spring, I decided to use a trio of blooming plants. I was able to purchase all of these plants at the local grocery store.
Start by choosing a few plants of different shapes and textures that will look great together. When designing a dish garden or blooming planter basket, I like to use the “thriller, spiller and filler” method of planting. In simple terms, the thriller is the focal point, the spiller adds motion and the filler fills in the “holes”.
For this project, I picked out plants that fit the “thriller” and the “filler” categories. Let’s see what I picked!
To add height to the arrangement, I picked out a pot of purple tulips. The tulips will act as the “thriller” plant, adding height as well as a bit of motion to the arrangement.
For my “thriller” I picked out this hot pink kalanchoe.
The third plant I picked out was an orange Star of Bethlehem. I love the bright orange color of this plant, don’t you?
Because the plants are going to be kept in their individual pots and watered individually, you don’t need to pay attention to differences in water requirements like you would if you were planting plants together in soil. When watering the dish garden, make sure you water into each individual pot. I use a watering can with a slender spout (sometimes called a gooseneck spout) to reach in to the basket. As I earlier mentioned, I placed each plant into a speed cover to help keep the water from running through the plants and possibly damaging the vintage basket.
THE “PLANTING” PROCESS
Since I was using the hot pink kalanchoe as my filler, I placed it in the basket first. Here is a close up of the kalanchoe.
Then I added the orange Star of Bethlehem next to the kalanchoe.
The pot of tulips went into the back of the basket.
As a final touch, I added the tufts of white to add interest to the basket. The tufts are actually the wrappers off of some plants that I had ordered! I tend to keep things like this…. it may be why my husband thinks I am a hoarder!
A Touch of Whimsy!
To finish the vignette, I added an old metal watering can similar to the one pictured below. I love to add touches like this to my decorating.
Save This Pin for Later!
The Finished Blooming Garden Basket
If you liked this post, you might like these as well!
Mother’s Day Forget Me Not Dough Bowl
Yellow Rose European Dish Garden
How to Decorate with Antique Garden Tools & Accessories
Shopping Links
This is a great example of a gooseneck watering can
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How beautiful! Thanks for sharing your pretty basket! Coming over from the All About Home Link Up Party
Hi Kim, I so love your dish garden with all the beautiful Spring color and texture. And LOVE, love that amazing green basket. It’s all so perfectly “vintage”. Thanks so much for joining in on the party. I’m sharing this post at All About Home this evening.
Thank you so much, Debra! The basket is one of my favorites! I am thrilled to be featured on All about Home!
That basket is a perfect vintage piece, that green has become a quick favorite color of mine. I love the idea of the plants being displayed together, yet having their own separate pots. Looks lovely.
Thank you ! I love this shade of green too! Hope you had a wonderful Easter!
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