This post brought to you by Dollar General. All opinions are 100% mine.

Although it may be taking longer to come to the rest of the country, here in Northern California, spring had definitely arrived. Our winters are mild enough that plants actually bloom year round, but spring is still wonderful since the deciduous trees bloom and start leafing out, and the limited color of winter is finally gone.
Garden prep in my area is pretty easy.  In late March I have to replace the spent annuals from last year, start fertilizing the gardens and lawn, and clean up any damage from the winter.
And because I live in a townhouse, with a very limited outdoor space, I have to do a lot of container gardening.   Thankfully the wonderful people at Dollar General asked me to try out some of their line of outdoor and Lawn and Garden supplies.  I was super excited since everyone knows I LOVE Dollar General.
Because I don’t have a ton of space, I knew I wanted to do something vertical, and when I saw some small green plastic planters for only $1.50 each I knew I had found just the right thing!  I also bought a mini ‘flag hook’ ($2) and some garden soil ($4) and fertilizer ($5).

The first thing I did was cut the ‘hook’ part off the flag hook with a hacksaw:


That left me with a metal stake that could be inserted into the ground to add stability.


Next I used my drill to put holes in the flower pots (just slightly larger than the diameter of my new stake.


Here is what they looked like when I ran them onto the metal rod.  They did need to overlap on at least 2 sides in order to stay level.


Next i added the potting soil and a few shakes of Fertilizer:

Lastly, the flowers.  I bought a couple of flats at the local garden center for only a few dollars:

And here is what it looks like finished:

I love it!  My favorite part is that there are layers of color all up and down it.  Plus it was super easy to do.
Since I had a few dollars leftover, I also purchased one of these great ‘faux’ half barrels, which were under $15.  I have seen them at the big home improvement stores for more than double that!

II filled it with my leftover potting soil and some additional plants.  Then clustered the planters together with another one I had on hand to create a little container garden along my front walk:
 
The kids picked out the purple and yellow colors, and I first I wasn’t sure I would like it, but it turned out colorful and cheery.. perfect for spring.

And if you are in the market for some adorable spring planters (at affordable prices), you should definitely check out the selection at Dollar General.  Here are a couple that I thought were super cute (and would be wonderful on a kitchen table with a houseplant):

And if it isn’t warm enough to plant anything outdoors, they also have a large selection of seed starting supplies, so you will be ready when the time finally comes:

To keep up with their latest offers, make sure to follow Dollar General on on Twitter and on Facebook!