How to Bring Your Dead Planters Back to Life is perfect if you are anything like me – staring at the dead plants on your patio leftover from last year and wondering what in the world you’re going to do! It’s time to bring in the professional: my mom! After running a nursery and landscaping business for 15 years and keeping 40-50 plant varieties alive every year, she’s a garden pro! We’re diving in with step-by-step photos and instructions on How to Bring Your Dead Planters Back to Life. You’ll have a colorful patio in no time!

What you need to bring your dead planters back to life:

First off, let’s get everything in order that you will need! Since you already have the planter or pot, all you need is a few simple items:

• A fresh bag of potting soil.
• Flowers of choice – we went with pint size flowers this time! You can also buy them in smaller packs, but the pint size is typically a more full plant. We chose Petunias and Superbells (Calibrachoa).
• Garden tool of choice, such as a hand-spade to help you.
• Gloves if desired

In need of some fun planters? Check out some of the options here, here and here!

Step 1: Removing the Dead Plant

To start, you’ll need to remove the dead plant that is already in your planter. Do this by using the spade to loosen the soil around the dead plant while grabbing it in the center with your other hand. Gently pull up until you have completey removed the entire dead plant and it’s roots. It’s ok if it takes some of the old soil with it as you will need to add some new in anyways.

Step 2: Getting the New Soil Ready

Next, you’ll need to “fluff” the old soil that is in the pot. Add in the fresh potting soil on top of the old until the pot is about 3/4 of the way full.

Step 3: Planting the Flowers

Then, it’s time to add in the flowers! Before you take the flowers out of their plastic holders, arrange them in your pot so that you know where you are going to place them and how many you can fit in your pot. When it comes down to it, try to not over-crowd your planters as that can cause the flowers to die. We went with 2-3 pint-sized flowers per pot depending on the size.

Next, you get to plant the flowers! Gently remove the flowers from their plastic containers and check the bottoms. If the roots are all grown together at the bottom (which they most likely will be), you’ll need to gently pull the roots apart from each other. This allows the flowers to actually grow into the new planter you are putting them into. Make a well in the soil where you had laid the flowers out about the same size as the bottom of the plant. Place the flower in the hole you created and gently nestle it in. Repeat until all of your flowers are planted in the pot.

Step 4: Setting the Flowers

After all of your flowers are nestled into the planter, add more fresh potting soil in around them to completely bury the sides of the flowers. Then, gently pull up on each plant slightly and wiggle it back and forth. Let the plant set back down – this process allows the soil to naturally settle in around the plant. After doing that, you will be able to see if there are any areas where you may need to add more potting soil. Do so to make sure that the potting soil and the top of the plant are even.

Step 5: Watering the Flowers

Finally, you water your new flowers! We highly recommend having a planter pot that has a hole in the bottom to let water naturally drain out of the pot. If not, then you will need to be cautious on how much water you add to your flowers to not “drown” them. After you water your flowers, you may see that the potting soil settles more. If there a spot that you notice needs more soil, add some more in! Then, gently water that area again.

When it’s all said and done, you’ll have a beautiful planter full of colorful flowers to sit back and watch grow! Now comes the hard part (at least for me) – keeping them alive all Summer long…

Stay tuned for more garden adventures coming your way! Do you have a specific garden question or something you’d love to see done? Let us know! We have all sorts of gardening knowledge at our fingertips with my mom around! 🙂

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Thanks for following and cooking and planting along with me!