Native Pollinator Container Garden | Fine Gardening Container Challenge

I entered Fine Gardening magazine’s 2026 Native Plant Container Challenge, sponsored by Proven Winners, and in this garden journal entry I’m taking you through the process of creating my container from beginning to end. My goal was to create more than a beautiful seasonal container. I wanted to explore how native plants, pollinator-friendly perennials, bold foliage, and annuals could come together in an ornamental design that also brings a little more life into the space where we gather. In this video, I share how I approached the design, why I chose different plants for height, texture, color, and movement, and why I didn’t worry about having every plant in bloom at the same time. You’ll also see some of the decisions I made along the way—including fitting quite a lot of plants into one 23 × 20-inch container! Some of the plants featured include Clethra, cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), Agastache, Echinacea Sombrero Rosada, Echinacea Double Scoop Strawberry Deluxe, Sunbeckia ‘Marilyn’, red salvia, Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’, and Mecardonia. One of my favorite moments came after the planting was finished, when the Clethra began blooming and the bumblebees found it. That was a wonderful reminder that even a container can become a small extension of the pollinator garden. 🌿 About Kelly’s Garden Journal This is where I document my Zone 4 garden as it grows and changes—the projects I try, what works, what I would do differently, and everything I learn along the way. If you enjoy gardening, container design, pollinator-friendly planting, and following a real garden through the seasons, I’d love to have you garden along with me. Like this video and subscribe to Kelly’s Garden Journal for more garden projects, seasonal containers, experiments, and garden tours. Contest note: This container was created as my entry for Fine Gardening magazine’s 2026 Native Plant Container Challenge, sponsored by Proven Winners. This video is my independent garden-journal documentation of the project and is not sponsored by Fine Gardening or Proven Winners. #ContainerGardening #NativePlants #PollinatorGarden #FineGardening #GardenDesign