My new (old) gutter planters...

Back during the strange COVID times Andrew and I stopped at a local salvage shop, where I bought a couple of short galvanized rain gutter remnants. I had plans for them, but that's where the story ends. They needed end pieces to make them "plantable" and I had no idea gutter caps that size (and metal!) were still made. I thought I was going to have to fabricate something myself. Fast forward to this spring and I happened to see metal ends were available at the hardware store, and Andrew was up for attaching them. Yay!

This planter/planting I saw last summer in Jenn Ferrante's garden is what inspired me to get moving on the project again after what, 5 years? Good lord. Her planter is way cooler than my gutter pieces though...

This piece is the smaller of the two...

There's one of the new end caps...

The ferns I choose to plant in it—Pyrrosia christii and Phlebosia ‘Nicolas Diamond’—aren't hardy here in Portland, so this piece spent the final few weeks of winter in the basement.

And then once I hung it on the fence I cut back most of the old fronds, so it's just getting started for the season.

They're growing though!

Looking to the right you can see the longer section, I choose to fill it with various Rhipsalis species.

Included species are: Rhipsalis elliptica, R. ewaldiana, R. houlletiana, and R. paradoxa.

Inspired by Jenn's planter, which included decorative rocks, I've been working in various metal pieces. 

It's an ongoing project (they be helping to keep the squirrels from digging in here too, which is a good thing).

Speaking of metal, I picked up that "stand" on the far left (with the holes around the base), when I was in Corvallis, Oregon, last February. I knew it was going to make a nice base for one of my metal dish planters. I absolutely love it!

The rusty piece on the far right is holding a few of the bromeliad planters that were part of the bromeliad table last summer.

Instead of going the table route again this year I went ahead and planted a few bromeliads (dark Neoregelia NoID, and several Aechmea recurvata v. recurvata, v. kiwi and v. benrathii) in plastic pots and sunk them into the metal container I used as the base last year.

I like it the change.

The Bit at the End

Even though these planters all contain multiple plants, I'm usually a one plant per pot kinda gal. So... I was surprised how much I love the container plantings in this Gardenista post on Terrain's new container gardening book. Check it out here.

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