Help Bedding Plant Mishaps

[User1706]

So I was trying to keep my small terrace front looking tidy and welcoming, so I bought a lovely wooden rectangular planter, which I planned on filling with some lovely bright plants and a few flowers. It's been a total disaster. I stupidly filled it with compost, just due to my lack of knowledge, the plants all just looked withered and messy (I'm assuming due to really wet none draining compost.) It's full of slugs and woodlice and this morning I've just looked at how drab and untidy it's made the house look and I've pulled all the plants out.

I don't know why but it's really got me down! My house is a bit of a doer upper which I'm struggling to really push forward on due to having a toddler and I just wanted this little bit of it to be neat and tidy. I'm going to leave it for winter as I'm assuming I can't do much about it now anyway but how can I fix this next year? I'm thinking try mix with peat or topsoil and re-plant.

Sorry for the long post about something so basic, but it's driving me mad!

Are there drainage holes in the planter?
Sometimes they're marked, but need to be drilled or knocked out.

Yes there are slats at the bottom, they're really wide so I lined it as advised by the seller. However, since I've cut the liner to try get a little moisture out.

I would plant lots of bulbs in it now ready for spring.

I think if the liner wasn’t cut before the poor plants have been slowly drowning! Now you have cut the lining it will drain better. I would treat myself to some bulbs and plant up the container with bulbs and winter flowering pansies. If you google lasagne planting for bulbs you can plant a selection that will keep your planter looking interesting from February to April.

Don’t be disheartened, it happens to all of us, I bought a reduced metal planter of succulents from B and Q the other week to put on my patio table as winter interest and only realised today that the drainage holes were not draining properly! Monsoon quantities of rain obviously didn’t help……..A quick poke with a screwdriver to enlarge the holes and some pot stands to help with the drainage and it will be fine.

Don't add peat. It's being phased out for environmental reasons.

Bedding will look crap by now, that's why the shops/ garden centres are full of winter bedding like bellis, pansy, wallflowers etc which will go through the winter