Container gardens offer four seasons of pleasure, fun and creativity. Fall is here and the holidays are fast approaching. Make use of this opportunity to be creative and plan on changing out the plants in your containers. Gorgeous containers bursting with colorful arrangements are a focal point and should always look their best.

The amount of time and money you want to spend on your containers will determine how many times each year you want to change the plantings or add additional plants. It may mean completely changing some pots with each season or just changing a few plants in each pot.

Fall

Fall color schemes revolve around oranges, deep golds and rich reds. Mums are the classic standby, but calendulas, pansies, ornamental kales, diascias, snapdragons and edibles such as beets and Swiss chard make great fall containers.

Winter

In winter, seasonal container gardens can be filled with boughs of evergreens. Some foliage plants, such as springerii, can be left to dry in the containers making a decorative display all winter. Hardy trailing plants including vinca and ivy can remain in the container all winter. Woody plants offer interesting textures in winter and broadleaf evergreens such as holly, daphnes, boxwood, ivy topiaries and small conifers offer interest all winter. Arrangements of red twig dogwood and evergreen branches make a delightful seasonal display in urns near entrances.

Containers with Foliage Plants

Foliage plants and woody plants will work best for containers and planters used as screens and space dividers.

For more information on seasonal containers for your home or business, contact Paul at Fine Gardeners.

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Did you think outdoor garden season is over? It's not. You can still make your home more beautiful for the holidays or just for the barren winter season with a gorgeous, but smaller garden. Seasonal window boxes and outdoor container gardens make a home stand out.. Paul Marini, owner of Fine Gardeners, is "making the world a more beautiful place, one garden at a time."

Fine Gardeners specializes in garden design and installation; ornamental pruning of trees and shrubs; seasonal containers; and lawn and garden maintenance. We have been very busy installing winter container gardens for our clients this week. The materials we use include evergreen boughs, colorful twigs, pine cones and red winter-berries to name a few. No artificial products are used!

We bring the materials to you and install them on site in your containers. Our goal is to create festive, colorful arrangements with contrasting textures for a natural look. Special requests are welcome and some of our clients don't celebrate Christmas, so they prefer to avoid a red and green theme.

Seasonal flowers for container gardens placed on your front steps, main entrance or in your window box will not only enhance your property, but will create a welcoming effect for visitors. We are looking for homeowners, restaurants and shop owners in the Needham/Newton/Brookline areas who want to stand out and make their space beautiful.

For more information on container gardens and window boxes, contact Paul Marini at Fine Gardeners.