Our house has flower beds on all four sides, which I love. I’ve always wanted to do something a little different in this spot by the back door rather than planting directly in the ground. And after 7 years of dreaming, I finally bit the bullet and purchased the corten steel planters I knew would be perfect for this spot.

Of course I forgot to get a true “before” photo. This spot was empty with only mulch.

This is how the planters arrived. They were very easy to assemble. I was able to put one together by myself before help arrived to finish the rest.

Here they are assembled. NOTE: If you ever put together a steel planter of your own, do NOT break into smaller pieces and/or throw away the styrofoam packing in the box like we did. Several pages into the instructions, it tells you the foam is to be used for insulation from heat and cold. Let’s just say we went dumpster diving to get the pieces back from the trash. Luckily, even broken in half, the foam pieces were all accounted for and fit perfectly back together in the planters.

You’ll notice the planters are silver. The beauty happens over time as the weather slowly causes the steel to rust. Or, if you’re impatient like me…

…you can use the same rust technique that we used on our steel “B” for our barn. This is just an hour after putting the planters together. A quick spray and they instantly rusted.

I used fallen tree branches, leaves and pinecones to fill the boxes halfway and then topped with dirt to fill completely. This is known as the hugelkultur method (pronounced hoo-gun-culture) which can be used for raised garden beds or large planters. Hugelkultur uses yard waste to create a nutrient-rich, well-draining soil.

This is exactly what I always pictured for this spot. Rusted steel planters that complement the cedar shutters. I would love to eventually add matching corten steel edging to all the other flower beds.

The boxwood trees are evergreen and will provide color even through the winter. In a few weeks I’ll be adding more color with flowers and trailing plants around the boxwoods. In the fall I hope to add pumpkins straight from my garden to fill in the spaces between the trees.

I also added a square planter to the other side of the patio. I previously had a black urn here that kept blowing over and breaking. These steel planters are heavy. There is no chance of them blowing over and they will last forever. I went with another evergreen, Arborvitae Franky Boy, here that will soon grow to about 4-6 feet tall. Ever so slowly, the back patio is coming together just as I pictured in my head.