Planters 101: The Ultimate Buying Guide

Planters are a quick and easy way to invigorate an give an injection of colour to your garden area.

Our merchandising team at GardenStreet give you the full guide on what to consider when purchasing your next planter.

Planters for Commercial Segregation

Planters can be an environmentally friendly alternative to provide pedestrian segregation and barriers. Ideal for carparks, or to protect pedestrian walkways, a planter is cheap, heavy, and can add to the aesthetics of an area.

The Rowlinson Patio Planter is 180cm long, and can be a dead-weight to create segregated areas. It can be more cost effective than installing car bollards.

Best Planters for Balconies and Courtyard

The Marberry Corner Planter is a great, pre-assembled, entry level planter. With a capacity of 45 litres, this space saving model is designed to fit snugly into corners. This helps to maximise space in smaller areas, and creates a burst of natural colour into your garden.

For multi-tiered growing, try the Cascade Planter which is ideal for segregation.

Best Planter for Urban Wall Gardens

Rowlinson’s Garden Creations Tier Planter can be used alongside a Garden Creations Panel to create a tiered wall garden. Despite the compact nature of the planter, it features two separate growing areas.

The Garden Creations Panel (sold separately) can be used in a variety of ways. These include growing trailing plants such as Clematis up, hanging small pots and planters from, or lacing with solar lighting to create an urban growing wall.

Do planters require assembly?

Most planters tend to be assembled. For example, our Marberry collection are expertly crafted and arrive fully built. This saves time and cost on assembling, meaning you can get cracking on planting.

There are exceptions to the rule; typically the larger the planter, the more likely it is to need assembling. Our colossus and ever popular Rowlinson Patio Planter is around 6 foot in size, so would require assembling to ensure the safe transit on the home delivery service we offer.

Do planters need drainage holes?

We’d recommend drilling a couple small holes into the bottom of the planter to allow effective drainage. This can help to protect your plants from being over-watered, and the soil becoming sodden from sudden downpours.

Always take care in drilling through the bottom; wood and metal are the easiest to work with, and plastic can shatter under drill pressure. Always check warranty information before modifying your product – if you cause accidental damage this may not be covered.

Do planters include the liners?

Some planters include the liners as standard, such as the Marberry Rectangular Planter. This helps to protect the planter from the soil/compost within – be it staining and rot. It also helps to protect the plants within the liner.

Those which don’t have one included can have one applied through wood staples, and fabric weed membrane found in most hardware stores.

Do you need to treat planters?

We’d recommend treating planters to ensure the longevity of the product. Whilst most do come pressure treated, if they are not then it is vital to protect them with a preservative. This should be done inside and out, prior to filling the planters.

Ensure you choose a water based preservative (such a Protek), and one which is safe for growing food if that is the purpose of the planter.

Most pressure treated planters will live for 7-10 years without any additional treatment.

To view our full collection of planters, visit GardenStreet today.