Imagine stepping out into a garden full of edible delights that you can eat and enjoy as you please. Cultivating your own edible paradise is easy with container gardens!
Craft fragrant and flavorful creations bursting with fresh goodness and enjoy your culinary oasis. Start the year off right and plant fresh herbs and tasty berries. Transform your edible garden into a magical wonderland with personalized planters decorated with fun painting techniques and more!
Ready to be inspired? Here is a helpful plant guide and creative decorating ideas to spark your imagination!
The Benefits of Growing Edible Delights
Skip the line at the grocery store and enjoy the many benefits of growing fresh herbs and berries at home. Container gardens are a great way to help control the conditions and grow gorgeous edible plants, even if you don’t have a yard. With your favorite edibles right at your fingertips, you can make every meal magical. You can even grow these tasty plants indoors!
Plus, edible gardening is good for you too! Herbs and berries are packed with nutrients and add natural flavor to any meal, making you more inclined to skip the salt or sugary sweets. Gardening can also relieve stress and provide added comfort in knowing your edibles are fresh from the plant.
Whimsical Terra Cotta Decorating Inspiration
Craft container gardens that are as delicious as they look with fun and whimsical decorations.
Light up your containers with a creative touch and try these DIY painting and decoupage designs.
CREATIVE TERRA COTTA PAINTING IDEAS
Personalize your terra cotta pots to suit your style with paint. Add a festive touch and create a top hat- look for an eccentric display or try crafting a confetti design with pencils! These unique designs are easy to create, and they will add extra color and life to your home.
SUPPLIES:
- Terra Cotta Pottery & Saucer
- Fresh Herbs or Berries
- Calloway’s Premium Organic Potting Soil
- Paint Primer
- Spray Paint
- Craft Paint
- Paint Brush
- #2 Pencils
Top Hat Planter
For this playful design, paint your terra cotta pots with primer and allow them to dry completely. This will provide a clean template to allow your paint color to shine. Paint your planter and saucer with the color of your choice. For our design, we chose vibrant purple for a festive touch.
Next, with metallic craft paint in a lighter purple shade, create the band of the top hat design. Paint a 1–2-inch bar along the bottom of the pottery and allow it to dry completely. Add more coats of paint if needed.
When everything is dry, it is time to plant. Try a trailing herb such as Creeping Mother of Thyme. This versatile herb has fragrant, flowing foliage that produces lavender blooms in the summer. Thyme is great for using in seasonings or adding to soups, sauces, and more!
When grown indoors, Thyme can be planted any time of year! If it consistently receives bright light, you can enjoy the delicious flavor all year long. For your watering wisdom, once Thyme is established, it is drought resistant. When the soil is dry, saturate the roots with water and allow it to dry out again before its next watering.
Painted Confetti Pots
Personalize your terra cotta pots with a unique confetti design. This handmade craft is simple to create and it will add a sparkling brilliance to your home.
Coat your containers with primer before painting. Once dry, paint your planter in your favorite color. Try a bright pink or blue for a pop of color or keep your edible collection consistent and paint it purple like your top hat pottery.
Once your planter is ready to go, start adding the decorative confetti. Use bright paint colors that will stand out among the purple base.
With a #2 pencil, dip the eraser into the craft paint and stamp it onto the pot for each confetti dot. Use a different pencil for each paint color to prevent your colors from mixing.
Place each dot sporadically around the containers, putting more dots near the bottom. Spread them out as you go higher up the pots to resemble falling confetti. Re-stamp any areas that need extra color and allow the paint to dry completely.
Fill your containers with dynamic Parsley! It is a culinary herb that is also favored for its gorgeous texture. The frilly foliage not only looks beautiful, but it tastes great too! It complements different kinds of pasta, potato dishes, tacos and is commonly used in delicious pesto and butter spreads.
Parsley thrives indoors or out, and it is easy to grow. Proper sun exposure is the key to keeping it happy and healthy! Place on a sunny windowsill and rotate the container every 3-4 days for even sun exposure. Keep the soil moist for the best growing conditions.
Celebrate the fruits of your labor and pair your confetti containers with delectable berries. Berries can be enjoyed as a healthy snack fresh from the plant, in jams, smoothies, desserts, and so much more!
Growing berries in containers is easy and a perfect choice for a small space garden. Plus, you can move them with ease during times of harsh weather conditions or to an area with better sun exposure. When selecting your container, pick a larger size so your plants have room to grow. The container needs an adequate hole for water drainage.
Blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries need full sunlight to grow, and they do best in evenly moist soil conditions. Watering is important, especially for fruits. A good rule of thumb is to allow the top 1-2 inches of the soil to become dry before watering again. Harvest time will vary depending on your variety of berries. They are usually ready for picking in late spring through the summer.
To protect your plants, add a trellis or stake to give them support as they produce their juicy fruits and provide a layer of mulch to help maintain a constant soil temperature, and to reduce weed growth and water evaporation. Use Calloway’s Premium Organic Pine Bark Mulch when planting berries, especially Blueberries, for the ideal acidic environment that these plants crave.
The Golden Ticket
Make it a golden day with a dazzling addition to your edible wonderland! Paint your terra cotta pottery metallic gold. What would an edible wonderland be without the golden ticket? This bold color will be a bright focal point in your display.
Fill your golden pot with fresh Lavender. Lavender is a versatile herb that thrives indoors and out. It is a commonly grown, aromatic herb, popular for its gorgeous look and fragrance. Lavender is often used in herbal teas, infused with honey or syrups, or you can even grind it up to enhance your homemade cookie or cake recipes.
This herb will thrive with access to full sunlight throughout the day. Place your golden planter in a sunny window or display in a sunny location outdoors. Rotate the plant for uniform growth and flowering.
PERSONALIZED DECOUPAGE FLOWER POT DESIGNS
Spruce up your flower pots with personalized decoupage designs. This easy craft will transform your edible garden into a whimsical wonderland in no time!
SUPPLIES:
- Terra Cotta Pottery
- Fresh Herbs
- Calloway’s Premium Organic Potting Soil
- Party Streamers or Colorful Tissue Paper Strips
- Paint Primer
- Paint Brush
- Mod podge®
First, paint your terra cotta pottery with primer or white paint. This will help the tissue paper appear bolder and more colorful. You can opt out of painting your pots for a natural look with a transparent feel.
Paint a layer of Mod podge® a little wider than your strips of paper and apply each strip one by one. Layer the pieces slightly on top of each other and use a rotation of colors around each planter. Allow everything to dry and touch up any loose pieces if needed.
Fill your tremendous designs with vibrant herbs such as Rosemary and Peppermint. Rosemary is a fragrant herb commonly used in Mediterranean and Italian cuisine. It can be eaten fresh or dried and it is jam-packed with nutrients.
Barbeque Rosemary is a stunning choice. It has narrow green needle-like foliage with an upright form. It is also a popular herb known for its great flavor and aroma. The strong, straight stems make for excellent barbeque skewers. Place in a sunny window or on your outdoor patio. Only water when the top 2 inches of soil is dry.
Mint thrives in container gardens, it smells lovely, and it can add fresh flavor to desserts, sauces, and your favorite refreshments. It is also popular in aromatherapy for relaxation to help soothe your body, mind, and soul. It thrives in partial to full sun light and prefers lightly moist soil conditions. Water when the top of the soil is dry to the touch.
Care Tips for Edible Plants
For all edible plants, they need sunlight and water to thrive. It is also important to provide the proper soil and nourishment. When planting fresh herbs and berries in containers, use Calloway’s Premium Organic Potting Soil. It is the epitome of excellence, crafted with the utmost care and the highest quality organic ingredients.
Feed your plants the organic way with our premium collection of plant foods:
- Espoma® Organic® Garden-tone® Herb & Vegetable Food has 100% natural and organic ingredients and gives a long-lasting, slow-release feeding with their exclusive Bio-tone Microbes for nutritious and flavorful edibles.
- Jobe’s® Organics® Herb Plant Food Spikes are pre-measured, mess-free spikes that nourish your herbs at their roots. They feed your plants fast and effectively.
- Espoma® Organic® Berry-tone® is the ultimate organic plant food for blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. It is 100% Natural & Organic Approved with a long-lasting slow-release feeding.
Garden with Ease
At Calloway’s and Cornelius, we are here to help with all your gardening needs! Visit us today and explore our stunning collection of cool season blooms, lush indoor plants, stylish pottery, fresh herbs, and so much more! Shop any of our 28 neighborhood stores, where we have served our loyal customers for over 35 years.
Have questions? Ask our Texas Certified Nursery Professionals; they are here to help!
