When looking to organize your surroundings’ greenery, no other option gives you as much flexibility as troughs. These large and narrow planting containers allow enough room for you to grow any plan of your choice, and their mobility allows them to be conveniently located in areas of your choosing. And when done right, gardens can enhance the aesthetics of your front porch, patio, kitchen, window sill, and backyard.
When using large troughs, you get double the planting space to utilize. However, larger troughs are heavier to move, and as such, can prove quite difficult to relocate once positioned. For this reason, their uses are not as flexible as their smaller counterparts, and as such, require extra considerations before deciding on a final location.
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Tips for Planting with Large Troughs UK
- Make sure the container matches the area it is put in. Wood and metal containers better in living rooms and kitchens, while clay or ceramic containers sit better outdoors.
- Consider the size of the trough for the planting you wish to practice. The larger the container, the more plants it can carry, and the more demanding the type of position it can sit. This also determines the type of plant you can grow in them.
- Let the trough match the color scheme of the area you put it in. If it originally doesn’t, you can paint it so yourself.
- If synchronization is important to you, grow only one plant in each trough. This way, you can alternate during positioning and create a more dazzling pattern around the environment.
Though large troughs are restrictive on positioning, there are still ways you can make the best of it and bring out the beauty of your surroundings. Below are some of these examples;
Top Planting Ideas for Large Troughs UK
1. Mini Shire
Create a story-telling impression with a large trough by using a small shrub, succulent, or evergreen plant, marble rocks, and a small house. Blue Carpet, Blue Diamond, and Buxussempervirensaregood plant options for this craft.
Read More: Best Plants for Pots All-Year-Round UK
2. Door Sentries
With two massive growing shrubs, you can mount vegetable guards next to your entrance, like sentries. Or you can grow a well-known climber from each trough, mount rims that border your door and end at each trough, and the plants will grow to form a beautiful vine doorway.
3. Indoor Garden
With two or more large troughs elevated and closely put together, you can have your very own garden right in your living room. You’ll have to use shade lovers, of course, but if you prefer the sun-loving alternatives, place the troughs close to where it gets more sunlight. In this, you can comfortably grow sweet-scented flowering plants of different kinds. Make sure to place a water collecting tray below the troughs.
4. Kitchen Window Garden Bed
If having a trough flower bed in your living room seems outrageous, why not grow them just outside your kitchen window. You can choose between aromatic herbs like sage and mint, or flowers like pansies or Deep Purple. and you can go all out and mix it up.
5. Pillar Rings
If your home has lots of beams and pillars, highlight them by placing troughs around each one. Not only does it look coordinated, but it also adds a hint of natural beauty to your home surroundings.
6. Pillar Climbers
Another bedazzling idea to consider if you have pillars in your home is to plant climbers in large troughs and place them next to the beams and pillars. With time, you get a breathtaking lush of foliage clinging to the vertical structures, giving the impression that your home is held together by the plants themselves.
7. Floating Gardens
You can also suspend large troughs on wheeled carts and frames, fill them up with rich compost and begin a vegetable garden right in your kitchen. You can grow onions, pepper, herbs and other spices, and sometimes even carrots as well.
Read More: Best Ground Cover Plants to Prevent Weeds UK
8. Pathway Markers
For verandahs, large troughs can serve as pathway markers, to guide visitors towards benches and waiting areas. Evergreen plants and creepers work best for this purpose, as they grow lush foliage and a present, conspicuous outlook that can’t be easily ignored.
9. Aromatic Herb Kitchen Garden
With a few large troughs, you can grow scented herbs right in your kitchen, for the sole purpose of improving the ambience. To make it more exotic, grow a different aromatic herb in each trough. The number of troughs you use depends on the size of your kitchen.
10. Living Room Space Dividers
Wooden troughs are great space dividers for living rooms, especially when planted with perennial shrubs like Lavender, Lungworts and Sedum. These types of shrubs are largely green, and so blend with most indoor environs. However, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can also use Hydrangea, Coleus and Euphorbia.
11. Jungle Patio
You can create an exotic outlook on your verandah or patio by planting with large troughs. You’ll need lots of troughs containing lots of plants. The target effect is to achieve a ‘paradise’ impression, where the foliage combines with the wooden furniture and frames.
12. Garden Bench Guards
You can also mount plants in large troughs at the sides of your garden benches, especially if the shrubs are taller and large-leaved. This idea looks more appealing if you own a large backyard with lots of benches.
Common Plants to Grow in Large Troughs
Annuals
These types of plants produce blooms at a faster rate. They grow short and usually flourish in the summer. Plants like Geraniums, Begonias, and Scarlet Sages fall under this category. These types are renowned for their versatility, brightly coloured flowers and ease of planting.
Herbs, Vegetables and Edible Flowers
Cook heads, organic foods enthusiasts, and vegetarians will find trough gardens with these plants most suitable. Herbs and vegetables thrive in plant containers of various size, and the large troughs give them extra room to flourish. With a good-sized trough, you can easily grow cabbages, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce or marigolds and pansies right in your kitchen area.
Perennials Shrubs
These vary from the hardy green perennials like lavender, sedges, ferns and ornamental grasses, to evergreen shrubs that grow year to year. The best part about perennials is they rarely shed leaves, and as such tend to maintain somewhat uniform foliage all year long. This makes them most ideal for landscaping and DIY demarcation projects.
