Spray Painting Plastic Planters

In yesterday's post on May Day flowers and what's in my garden, I talked a little bit about my lavender container garden that I'm starting this season. I want white planters for this. I have a couple of white or almost white planters that I'll use, but I also have this terra-cotta colored plastic container whose shape I find appealing for my lavender plants. It's just the wrong color.

If you recall from last summer, I spray painted some #10 cans a muted lime green to use for potting some small herb plants. 

I used 3 coats of spray paint on each, I think. For the most part, they over-wintered nicely. There's a little bit of rust at the base of the cans. I could have minimized the rust by clear-coat sealing the bottom inside of the can as well as painting the bottom of the outside of the can. I've saved another 5 #10 cans to spray paint with the same green paint. In total, I'll have 8 of these green painted cans to pot my deck basil container garden this year. 

I've seen YouTubers spray painting plastic for outdoors, including plastic planters. The paint they recommended was this Rustoleum 2X paint. The can says it's good on plastic, metal and wood. So I thought I'd give it a try on my square plastic planter. 

I bought a can of Blossom White satin finish Rustoleum 2X. After scrubbing up the pot really well, I then gave the outside and bottom 3 good coats of this paint. 

The pot sat in the garage overnight. The next day I turned the pot over and gave the top 3 coats, painting about 3 inches down into the inside of the planter. I will use the Rustoleum 2X clear coat sealer that I have leftover from last summer's projects both inside and out in a day or two. My plan is to allow the paint  and sealer coat to cure for 24 to 48 hours in the garage (recommended 24 hours under optimal conditions here for plastic) before filling the planter with soil and my next lavender plant. I'm hoping this works as well for me as it has for all of those YouTubers. Worst case scenario, I need to touch up the planter next year.

Other outdoor items I've seen YouTubers paint include resin chairs, metal or mesh and metal chairs, clay pots, fiberglass planters, and exterior vinyl shutters. I see some spray painting mania in my future.

Have you used spray paint on outdoor items? What was the longevity of the paint job? Were you satisfied with the final outcome?

Flowers for May Day

Do people still secretly give flowers for May Day any more? This is a fond memory from my childhood. 

My mother helped us make cones out of construction paper and tape, then we'd cut flowers from our yard for the cones. Afterward, we girls delighted in leaving these make-shift baskets on neighbors' front porches. While leaving flowers on doorsteps was beginning to fall out of favor in my childhood, it was a happy tradition that my sister, best friend, and I looked forward to each May 1.

Anyway, my husband cut a sprig of rhododendron for me this morning when I was out, leaving it in a small glass bottle on the kitchen table.

Here are some of my other happy flower moments from the day, some more frugal than others.

Marigolds that I grew from seeds collected from last year's marigolds, which were grown from seeds that I collected from the previous year's marigolds, which were purchased from the store. Never ceases to amaze me that I can collect my own seeds for planting flowers the next year.

More flower plants, just no blossoms. These are petunia plants that I grew from seeds that I collected from 2023's flowers, which were grown from seeds I called from 2022's flowers, which were flowers that I collected from 2021's flowers, which I bought at the store in 2021. With petunia's you really never know what you're going to get. I began with solid red, white and dark purple flowers in 2021. So far I've had dark pink, violet, dark purple, white, striped, solid, and spotted blossoms. I wonder what they will be this year?

I added Creeping Jenny to my hanging baskets of begonias on the front porch. I'm getting a lot of blossoms on the begonias already.  Creeping Jenny does flower, so I'm hoping I can collet seeds in late summer to start my own plants next year.

This is the beginning of my container lavender garden. I love lavender. My whole family knows I love lavender. My son and daughter-in-law gave me this planter for my birthday specifically for lavender. My daughters gave me 3 tiny lavender plants, as well. This English lavender plant was a tiny one three years ago and needed a new space this year. I've used marble chips as mulch on the soil surface. I love the look of lavender against white, both the pot and the rocks. 

I bought the marble chips in a large bag (50-lb) at Home Depot in the outdoor garden and landscaping section for $6.47. They also sell smaller white rocks for indoor plants in the house plant section in 5-lb bags for $6.78 each. I knew I would need several of the smaller bags if I wanted to put a white rock mulch on top of my soil in all of these pots (which will be 5, in total), so I went for the larger landscape bag of marble chips. Rock or gravel mulch is recommended for lavender plants to aid in combatting humidity.

Here's a small English lavender plant that I bought last year. It's needing a larger pot, as well. I'm working on that pot this afternoon. More to come on that.

And then I have the 3 tiny lavender plants that I'll pot in a few days. There aren't any lavender blossoms on any of these plants right now. Their fragrant leaves will have to tide me over until early summer when they bud and bloom.

Are May Day flower baskets a part of you childhood memories? Did you mark today with flowers in any way?

Happy May Day, friends! If I could, I would leave a May Day basket or cone on each of your doorsteps.