Hardy Spring Planter - tough enough for a light frost.

What is a hardy spring planter?

A hardy spring planter is one that you can plant and not worry about a cold spring night harming the plants. I'm in Wisconsin, and it's about 3 to 4 weeks before it's safe to start planting plants that the frost won't kill/harm.

How to know if plants are hardy enough for a spring planter?

Knowing if plants are hardy enough for a spring planter often comes from experience with planters.  Or, if you ask someone from a nursery or garden center, you can ask them.  Just make sure the person you ask knows something about plants.  I chose plants that are the first in the nurseries or garden centers AND I also like the plants that are the last to survive in the late fall.

My window box planter, that is actually my deck planter, is what I see anytime I come or go from my home. It's what my close neighbors also see : ). They probably don't realize it, but this is the planter I plant, then step over into their yard to see if it looks good from there.  They are awesome neighbors so I want to keep them happy!

What is in your hardy spring planter?

For the early spring planter, I chose pansies as the main plant. I just have always loved them! They have those saucy looking faces. They are super hardy and even if it snows on them, they will be fine. Here is what happened last week to some little pansies (also called violas) I eventually put into a different planter.

Some planting tips!

Your plants may be a little root bound when you are transplanting them. This is something you can easily rectify. Here is a root bound plant.

I often just pinch off the roots from the bottom, rough up the sides a bit and spread the roots at the bottom.
the

The small plants in the little multi containers have the same issues.
Root bound plant:

Roughed up with the bottom pinched off:

The above is alyssum which has pretty tiny flowers.  What I love about this plant is they start to cascade and just keep blooming.

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This planter will fill in beautifully in the next week or two.  The alyssum just grows and blooms.  I also included dusty  miller which will grow and fill in this planter.  Dusty miller is one of the toughest plants when it comes to frost.

So, here's my plan with this planter.  The dusty miller and the alyssum will grow and fill in.   By about the third week of May, the danger of frost is over where I live.  The pansies will be replaced with geraniums.  I actually do let the pansies stay in the container, but they tend to die back a bit in the hot weather.  But, they often reappear in the cooler fall weather.

I'll make a point of updating this post with how this planter is doing.

If like me, you just can't wait to start planting, go ahead.  Just use plants that are hardy and can survive what spring weather might bring.  As a review, I used pansies (3), alyssum(4) and dusty miller(3).

I do have to share that if you plan on doing a lot of gardening, treat yourself to some pretty garden gloves.  Good gardening gloves aren't very expensive but you'll really appreciate them when you do a lot of gardening in a day.

If you are on Pinterest, make sure you pin the picture below to your Pinterest account!