Succulents and More™

I greatly admire creative minds like Loree Bohl of  The Danger Garden  or Annette Gutierrez and Mary Gray of Potted . It seems so effortless for them to come up with original ideas for garden containers. Loree has created dish planters out of birdfeeder tops and has upcycled metal odds and ends in a variety of ways , and Anette and Mary have written an entire book on the subject . My ambitions are decidedly more pedestrian, but that doesn't take away from the excitement I feel when I complete a project, even a modest one. Over the last few years we've been adding Corten steel containers to the front yard to introduce some much-needed vertical elements and gain planting height. I love the rich look of rust that weathering steel like Corten develops over time, but metal planters are pricy. I've finally found an alternative that has much of the same look with just a fraction of the price tag. Here is an example I did last fall: Ground-level view: