Landscaping with Grocery Store Hanging Baskets

A few years ago, I decided we needed a berm in our front yard. We are a corner lot, and when cars would make the bend, the headlights would shine right in through our front window.  We started by planting a River Birch, and really small Alaskan Cedar Pine that I bought for $40. He was kind of a cute Charlie Brown type tree. It’s now been quite a few years (and he’s getting quite grown up), and the berm is really looking established! I noticed when I was driving up recently, that it seemed very “green”, and needed a little bit of color. One way I like to save money on annuals and add color is by breaking up and landscaping with grocery store hanging baskets and planters.

I found an image of the berm from when we first put it in, and I can’t believe how much everything has grown! This was about 7 years ago. While I love mostly using low maintenance perennials, annuals are great for those bits of added color and texture.

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Sometimes I’ll buy a flat of annuals if they are a good deal, but it still ends up costing $2-$3 a plant.  Lots of times, I can buy the hanging baskets on sale, and it ends up being less than $1 a plant!

I bought two hanging baskets at our stupid( insert grocery stores name here), for less than $10. I bought one basket that had pink begonias, and another one that had yellow petunias. I wanted plants that would do well in part shade. I found landscaping with grocery store hanging baskets and planters was an inexpensive way to do that.

Back story on why I call our grocery store Stupid (insert store name here)…. because for many years it’s been horrible. The produce section was gross, the selection of product was limited and horrible, and the entire store looked tired and dirty. Most residents only shopped there if they couldn’t get to another store. It’s now getting a face-lift, so I have high hopes. I will say the girl who does our garden center does an amazing job, it’s the best part of our store.

After de-potting…? Un-potting? The plant, breaking it up is easier than it seems.

A few years ago I discovered a serrated edge weeding trowel, also called a Garden Knife , and I’ve never looked back. This is one of my favorite tools along with my perennial spade digging shovel, and has made my planting so much easier! This garden tool is not only great for digging, but for weeding, and cutting through root systems.

I used the edge of my serrated edge trowel carefully cut up the soil and root ball, and start separating the plants.

I was able to cut apart 5 plants for transplanting.

I dug a hole slightly bigger than the root ball, covered the base with soil.

Once they were transplanted, I gave them a deep watering.

For $10, the grocery store annuals gave  a nice pop of color to the front, and made it look like it was less of a sea of plain green.

I’ll share in a few weeks how it looks a little more filled in!