Container garden makeover today - help!

[SerendipityFelix]

After ignoring my yard for a year since moving in.... I've decided today is the day I want to do a mini makeover.

I have been collecting various bits of junk to turn into a salvaged container garden - there's a big steel tank, apple crates, pallets (propped against brick walls to use the top as planter pockets), some metal grating against a wall I can grow some climbers up (in a container), a few medium-large terracotta pots as well. I've just spent the last hour re-arranging and now going to staple weed fabric inside the wooden ones, and then I have all day to hit the garden centre and fill them!

I live near a massive discount (membership) garden centre and am happy to spent maybe a hundred pounds or so, which should get me quite a few plants. I've got a few ideas, and will see what takes my fancy.... but any ideas or recommendations welcome!!! I have an allotment but am not used to container gardening. The yard gets full sun in the morning, partial throughout the afternoon and is then shaded in the evening. Nice warm brick wall to grow climbers up, which has ivy on about a third of it already, plus metal stairs to the flat can grow climbers up the railings as well. Would like some height in the form of perhaps a small standard/tree in big pot. I like bright colours and strong scents. Have quite a few solar lights around already to jazz the space up in the evening. Oh I'm also thinking of sinking a washing up bowl in the big steel tank to make a mini pond.

So.... any pointers MN gardeners?

No pointers but that sounds absolutely stunning. My dream garden. I love coloured outdoor paint for trellis etc as it is a cheap way of adding a bit of life to the garden.

It sounds like a great project. Don't forget to put good drainage in the containers, make sure there's holes and grit or polystyrene at the bottom.
Try to get all year round interest, Fatsia for exotic evergreen, honeysuckle for climbers evergreen clematis. Hydrangea for large showy flowers, hardy palms and roses.
Don't forget to leave some space for spring bulbs to plant in September and October. Summer bulbs such as Lillies could be planted next spring.

Wobbly I don't know about stunning, it's a tiny little concrete yard behind a shop, for the past year it's been an ever growing pile of actual junk with the only green being the ivy slowly covering it all! But I hope to make something nice out of it. Am unsure about painting some of the wooden bits, I've got used to it all being weathered natural wood in different shades. I might just pop a tall coloured panel against the wall or something. I do have some bright painted wood at the top of the stairs, little balcony by my front door.

Thanks JT!! Was wondering about a Fatsia. It's evergreen/year round interest things I am unsure of really. I usually end up buying pretty flowery things for my balcony planters which quickly look less interesting once the flowers are over. Apart from probably a few ferns for the shadier end. Honeysuckle and clematis definitely on the list, perhaps jasmine too. Hydrangeas remind me of my granny's garden - do they do ok in containers, I know them as massive garden shrubs?!?

I think I'm going to aim to collect more terracotta for different bulbs, and bring them out when they're in flower. They can live at the allotment when they're not being pretty.

Right..... off to the garden centre with an empty car and money burning a hole in my pocket

Get some tall nasturtiums. Mine have taken over the side wall and look amazing. They have so many different shades of yellow through to orange . I've got them growing up trellis. I've also got some in troughs trailing down the window sills. They are a Bee and butterfly magnet too.

Hello it's sounds great, I would recommend water retaining crystals and slow release fertiliser mixed in with your compost, good drainage holes. You could have some bulbs mixed in to give colour in the spring to extend the all year round interest, looking forward to seeing the end result!