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The Measured Home Series · No. 02
The Front Door Planter Formula
The right pot for your door, and four seasons of planting to fill it.
$9.99USD · PDF download
Buy the PDF · $9.99Instant download after checkout. Print at home or read on any screen.
- The Door Rule and Pot Size Chart. Pot height and width worked out from your own door, not a guess in the garden center.
- 16 planting recipes across fall, winter, spring and summer, each for full sun, part shade, full shade and a narrow step.
- One anchor plant stays all year, so each season is an afternoon swap, not a full replant.
- USDA zone and UK RHS rating on every plant, plus the pots that survive a hard frost.
- Format
- PDF download
- Pages
- 72
- Paper size
- US Letter, prints at home
- Units
- Inches and centimeters
- Author
- Ismail Qaudri
- 72Pages
- 16Planting recipes
- 4Seasons
- US + UKHardiness zones
About the book
It was never your green thumb.
Most front door pots fail for one of two reasons. They're too small for the door, or the plants in them die the first cold night. Neither has anything to do with how good you are with plants.
A standard front door is 80 inches tall. A pair of 16-inch pots with a few mums in them barely reaches your knee, and from the street they vanish. So this guide starts with your door, not with plants. Measure it once and the Pot Size Chart tells you how tall and how wide your pots should be.
Then it keeps those same pots working all year. One anchor plant stays put. Each season you swap the rest in an afternoon, with a recipe that already knows your sun and your winters. Every size is in inches with centimeters in brackets.
What's inside
From a tape measure to four seasons of pots
- 01
Measure your entrance
A one-page worksheet for door height, width, clear space and step depth, plus your light. Five minutes.
- 02
The Door Rule and the Pot Size Chart
The ratio between door and planter that reads well from the street, turned into exact pot sizes for your door.
- 03
Pair, trio or single, and pot shapes
When to use one pot, two or a stepped trio, and which shapes suit a narrow step or a deep landing.
- 04
Your zone and pots that survive winter
Find your USDA or RHS zone, and the pot materials that won't crack in a freeze.
- 05
The build, the anchor and the rotation plan
How to layer drainage, soil and plants, and the one evergreen that stays put while the rest rotates.
- 06
Fall: four recipes
Burgundy Sun, Copper Part Shade, Shade Glow and The Narrow Step, with color stories for mums that don't clash.
- 07
Winter and Christmas: four recipes
The Cut-Greens Urn, Birch and Berry, The Living Evergreen and The Lantern Pair, plus lighting the pots.
- 08
Spring and summer: eight recipes
From The Bulb Lasagna and Shade Hellebores to Hot Sun and Shade Begonias, then the swap calendar for the whole year.
Look inside
Real pages from the book
How it works
Three steps, one tape measure
- 1
Measure your door
Height, width and the clear space on each side. Note your sun and your zone.
- 2
Size your pots
The Door Rule gives you the pot height and width that will actually read from the street.
- 3
Plant the season
Pick the recipe for your light, plant it in an afternoon, then swap at the next season.
The Measured Home Series · No. 02
Measure once. Plant four times a year.
The right pot for your door, and four seasons of planting to fill it.
Questions
Before you buy
Is this a printed book?
I've never planted a container. Will I manage?
Will the plants work where I live?
My door has sidelights, or it's a double door. Is it covered?
When do I get the file?
The Measured Home Series
More guides from the series
No. 01 · 58 pages
The Styled Surface Formulas
Measure your coffee table, dining table or mantel, then style it to the inch. 36 recipes with a season swap for each.
No. 03 · 52 pages
Right-Size Room
Measure your room and sofa once. Get the rug size to order and 40 furniture layouts drawn to scale.
No. 04 · 56 pages
The Lamp Plan
Work out your room's lumen target, then follow one of 14 room recipes, each at three budgets. Renter-safe.
No. 05 · 64 pages
The Bathroom Decision Map
Plan a bathroom remodel in the right order, pick from 30 finish palettes, and hand your contractor a spec sheet.
Free on the journal
Start with these stories
Front Door Fall Planter Ideas: Two Big Pots, Burgundy and Bronze
Burgundy and bronze mums, together, in two big pots either side of the door. It looks less like a garden center than the orange-and-yellow combination everyone's had for ten years.
15 Burgundy Fall Planter Ideas (With Planting Recipes)
15 burgundy planters for your front door or porch, each with its plant list, pot and one mistake to avoid, so you can copy the one that suits your door.
Fall Window Boxes Ideas With Kale, Heuchera and Trailing Ivy
Ornamental kale lasts far longer than mums. Kale in the middle, dark heuchera either side, ivy spilling over the front. Good until the first hard frost and often past it.