Porch Spruce Up

I love topiaries! However, topiaries do not love me.  I have spent quite a bit of money giving myself "one more chance" not to kill my beloved topiaries.  Each time I am hopeful, the leaves inevitably turn brown and fall off, leaving me with a sad wire skeleton. I still love to look at other people's topiaries and admire them from afar, but I have refused to go down that path yet again.

I have been on the hunt for some sort of shrub/flower combination (but NOT a topiary) to flank either side of our front door. I really like round boxwoods in a planter; however, they are usually quite expensive.  So I was really excited to find a set on sale at Walmart over the weekend. The good news - they were $7 apiece.  The bad news - they were a little lot "let go".

Priced at only $7, I knew I could possibly create the look I was going for with a pair of hand clippers...yes, those are pink clippers...quit laughing!

So I was able to trim down the unkept pair of boxwoods and create a little "ball" of some sort...topiaryish.

At Walmart I also found two pretty urns and a tray of scraggly petunias that I can bring back to life on clearance.  

I placed the boxwoods with their fresh "haircut" in the urns first, then positioned the petunias around the base of the shrubs.  I then filled in and covered both with potting soil and watered very thoroughly.
The final product turned out quite nice and fills the space on either side of our front door.

 Maybe not quite a topiary, but a similar look for less than $40 total! Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you. They had small little boxwoods also on sale for $5.  Wouldn't it look cute to make a small boxwood "ball" for the mantle?