Do you want to take your porch from this... to this for pennies on the dollar?

I'm going to show you how with a front porch makeover.

[UPBEAT MUSIC] Hello!

I'm Trace Barnett, and welcome to Garden Party.

Today, I am amidst a bunch of baskets and plants because I'm giving myself a front porch makeover for nothing.

And the real key to redecorating something and making it look cohesive is cohesive containers.

And what better way than baskets?

So I have lined them with a little bit of plastic, but you can also line them with landscaping fabric too.

What that's going to do is it's going to give us a barrier.

So all of our soil and our water does not leach out onto our porch.

And, you know, it's going to hold all the moisture and all of our plant roots together.

Now after you have lined- Where the [BLEEP] did them scissors go?

So after you have lined your baskets, just simply take a pair of scissors and just poke some holes in that plastic so it has adequate drainage.

Now, if you want and you have a ton of pine straw on hand, or if you're like me and have a ton of hay or moss, even plastic bottles or packing peanuts from a shipping container store are perfect to put in the bottom of your container.

It's not going to hold a ton of water.

It's going to allow air to come up through the bottom, and it's also going to save you some money on potting soil.

So I'm going to do another layer of moss here.

And then I'm going to follow suit on the rest of these baskets.

So now that we have our filler put in the bottom of our basket, let's add in our potting soil.

And use a potting soil that has good moisture retention and has some organic matter.

Who am I kidding?

This is a potting soil that I kind of make up here at home.

I use a good high quality potting mix here, and then I just throw in compost and other organic elements.

So you want to fill your basket or your container up just right under the lip of the basket itself.

If you see that you have plastic kind of trying to peek through, just fold it under.

You're never going to say that because of the plants anyway.

I don't have any gloves!

Someone sponsor us and give us some gloves.

Now what I've done is I've just taken a little trip out to the woods and went up to the creek.

And I have dug up these native ferns.

They're super resilient to drought and sun and cold.

And they stay green all year round, too.

So I'm going to plant this toward the back of my container.

So we are going to mirror this initial planting in all of our planting containers.

And that's really how you get a really good cohesive porch also.

Make sure that all of the roots are sufficiently covered here, and you want to leave enough space in between your plants so they have plenty of room to grow in.

And as you see when I plant this, I'm kind of planting it on an angle there.

And the reason I'm doing that is because we want to angle that plant just so it's peering out of the pot directly to you so it looks like it's really full.

And one of the great plants that loves to thrive in the hot Alabama sun are petunias.

They're also super easy to grow.

Just don't overwater them.

And you need to deadhead them periodically throughout the season.

I'm going to go ahead and do that before I pot it up.

That way it's going to be ready to bloom in just a matter of days.

I'm going to pop that to one side.

So what I'm trying to do is kind of balance the colors here, get them situated, and then I really want to add something that has a little bit of height here to the background.

And this is another one of our great native grasses.

You can actually buy this grass in a nursery or any kind of big box store.

And it's just carex.

It's a perennial grass that stays green year round.

And what's great about it, it's one of the first bloomers in the spring.

So pollinators love them, honeybees... And I love them too for my containers.

And you can dig up one clump, and you're going to be able to get a thousand out of it.

So if they have dried tips or anything, just take your scissors and cut those off.

I think we need a little bit of a grass right there.

So I plant my containers like I plant my garden beds.

And I really love those layers.

You know, you have things that are spiky.

You have things that flower, you have softer textures with the spiky, a lot of visual appeal in one container.

Another one of my favorite things to use are these wonderful alocasias.

I love to use these.

These are an indoor alocasia, and I love them for the actual foliage itself, because I think they're just really pretty.

And that's going to give us a little height here in the back.

And it's also just going to make it seem like it's just billowing out when they blow in the wind.

I'm going to get a little bit of this inch plant too.

This is one that I had started back in the greenhouse quite some time ago.

And that's one thing I love about these plants is they're just so versatile.

You just need little pinches here and there, and you can carry them all the way through the rest of the containers.

And just for a little pop of color, I love airplane plants.

I don't necessarily always make airplane plants live in a hanging basket.

I think they're really pretty in containers, just as a grass that adds just a little bit of color right there in the front.

Now I'll add one more petunia here in the back.

And like I said, you don't want to overcrowd your containers.

I'm leaving ample room in between all of our plants so they have plenty of room to grow in, fill in.

They're going to really do good throughout the season.

So let's get all of these other baskets planted up and see where we're getting to In terms of plants.

So I'm just going back, and I'm kind of filling in my dirt here.

I always add like the final layer of dirt right before the end, just simply because I don't want to have to remove any dirt.

It all varies as you start adding plants in there.

There we go!

We have our spiller, filler and our thriller.

Did I say that twice?

Let's move on to our next basket.

[UPBEAT MUSIC] Looks like we're going to need a lot more dirt, huh?

I think this one just screams a caladium.

I really like that grass right there.

I think we need a petunia... or two.

Maybe two.

I really love, like, a little bit of spider plant.

Just kind of peeking up through the container.

And I'm also going to throw in another little bit of purple here, too.

I'm literally just pulling like one piece of this inch plant off.

This ajuga here, which I really love.

If you leave these in a container, they have really pretty purple flowers that shoot up spikes in the spring.

So it's going to be a little bang for your buck.

And I feel like that this container needs a little bit of chartreuse Need a little bit more dirt right in there.

Build it up just a tiny bit.

Add just a little bit more grass here.

Give us a little bit more height.

Simply just take these little plastic pots.

Put them right in the bottom of your container.

Perfect filler right at the bottom.

And you're going to save a ton on soil too.

Beautiful!

That looks good too, huh?

Coming along.

Alright!

Just a couple more.

Let's finish out these last two strong.

What do y'all say?

Somebody bring me a chainsaw!

[LAUGHS] Alright, so I'm finishing up on our last two containers here.

And what I've done is I've just kind of mirrored and echoed the same kind of similar plantings throughout all containers.

And the reason I do that is because it makes it feel like a cohesive garden.

Now, the last thing we're going to do before we start placing everything on the porch.

is I'm just going to take a bit of this straw, and I'm just going to run it kind of all around our plants here.

The reason I'm going to do that is this is really going to shield those roots, hold all that moisture in, and you're going to have to water a lot less.

So let's get these baskets hayed up and placed, and see the beauty unfold.

So you want to be sure and amply water your plants in, especially if they've been transplanted or simply pinched off of another plant.

And all you need to do is just stick your fingertip right into the soil, and if it has moisture there, you'll know it's sufficiently watered.

Also, if they began to wilt, especially if they're in the full sun, be sure and give them a drink of water if you want them to last the season.

Last, you want to be sure and deadhead any annuals or any plants that are flowering, because it's just going to promote more growth.

Now all that's left to do is to sit back and enjoy the beauty of this front porch.

Happy gardening!

From my porch to yours.

[UPBEAT MUSIC] Front porch makeover.

That's what- I kinew there was something I was missing!

Fronch porch makeover for pennies on the dollar.

French farnch frank over.

Let's do that again.

Franch porch make- [LAUGHS] [GIBBERISH] Fronch porch make- [LAUGHS] [BLEEP] Front porch makeover!

It's still going to be the same.

Fronch porch makeover for pennies on the dollar.

That was not anything that you just said.

Here's a fronch- [GIBBERISH] I know.

Pennies on the dollar.

Let's have a fronch proch- [LAUGHS] [BLEEP] Front porch makeover!

I'm going to show you how with a front porch makeover.

[BLEEP] Finally.

Their son was born on my birthday, and he recently just got a blond- His hair is blond.

He went and got a perm because my hair is now curly.

[LAUGHS]