I love to walk through city neighborhoods where gardeners have to get creative about where they can add flowers and foliage. No matter how large your front porch is (or even if you don’t have a porch), there’s always room for a garden—hanging at eye view for every visitor to admire. It’s right on your front door. A front door is possibly the tiniest bit of real estate in your garden, but it can make the biggest impact to visitors. Landscaping for your door (let's call it doorscaping), is easy. Plant a hanging container of flowering plants, sculptural succulents, or even cut flowers—and you will say “welcome” in the most elegant way. Here are three examples are beautiful containers for doors. Mix Flowers and Foliage Plant a rustic basket with layers of flowers and foliage. Start with cascading bacopa which offers small-leaf foliage and dots and dashes of small white flowers. Back it up with a swath of copper-leafed and red blooming begonia. And add a frilly backdrop of ferns. This combination is ideal for a shaded door. Serve Up Succulents Add a hanging garden to garden gates as well as front doors. Pack a hanging wire planter with easy-care succulents. Loved for their textural talents, succulents are also easy-care, needing less water than other annuals. Choose a mix of different types, such as aloes, echeverias, crassulas, kalanchoes, and sedums. Succulents are often used to create green roofs—and they are tough as nails and super forgiving.

Add Cut Flowers

You don’t have to grow a garden on your front door—just use it like a vertical table and add a bouquet of flowers. You can pick flowers from your garden (just as this homeowner did—black-eyed Susans, ferns, and agapanthus) and insert them into a bottle with water snuggled into a larger door hanging container. Or you can pick up a bouquet of posies at the supermarket and simply drop them into the door containers. Here are some care guidelines for door-worthy gardens: Consider Light: Choose plants based on light requirements: sunny doors need sun-loving plants. Think succulents, sweet alyssum, verbena, and callibrachoia. Shaded porches (as many porches are), need shade-loving plants. Think begonias, fuchsia, torenia, and impatiens. Use Quality Soil: Moisture-holding soil, such as potting soils mixed with sphagnum peat moss, will help hold moisture.

Water Often: In addition to good soil, you also need to be vigilant about watering. Plants in small containers dry out faster than those in large containers. So you’ll need to water your door garden every day to keep plants fresh and hydrated.