Butterfly Garden

• Planters are a good way to draw butterflies into your garden. Plants are available that are ideal for attracting butterflies from the caterpillar stage to their flying insect stage. Caterpillars feed on sassafras, cherry, nasturtium and hollyhock. Annuals that attract butterflies include snapdragons, creeping zinnia, marigolds and heliotrope. Good choices among biennials and perennials are violets, sea holly and sunflowers.
  
  

Small Bulb Planter

• A small planter can compensate for its size by offering a variety of bulbs that extend past the growing season of other plants. When choosing bulbs for a small planter, select small species. Daffodils, irises and crocus are all bulbs that will can be enjoyed when other bulbs are losing their appeal.
  
  

Southwestern Garden

• Planters large and small can create a desert garden featuring plants tall and short. Tiger's jaw, sea urchin flower, old man cactus, Medusa's head and ponytail are all succulents that grow inside a mass of planters.
  
  

Vegetable Garden

• A garden can be raised in a planter that not only offers a visual pleasure, but an edible one. Vegetables can be raised in outdoor planters suitable to any taste. Those who enjoy raising crops for their own salads could plant carrots, spinach, onion and celery. Planters can also be used for vegetables for cooking like sweet potato, Brussels sprouts, okra and sweet corn.
  
  

Wall Planters

• Wire planters attached to fences or walls create decorative and fragrant additions to a patio or deck area. Stuff the interior of the wire container with moss to conceal the metal. Provide variety in color, shape, texture and aroma with light and air plants like petunias, pansies, marigolds and sweet alyssum.
  
  

Water Garden

• Create a water garden by constructing a small square planter out of pressure-treated lumber and a flexible liner. A small-scale water garden located in a planter brings a presence to a garden area otherwise lacking in character. A good combination of plants for this type of water garden is any of the array of water lilies, water hyacinth, ferns and parrot feather as a submerged oxygenator.