Hot pots: think of a container as the gorgeous frame to show off your plant—here are our picks from western designers

MOST INNOVATIVE

2 Trying to tackle your whole yard all at once. Do so and you'll be sorry. The project will feel like a burden, not a pleasure. Instead, work on a small area at a time and build up your gardening skills. Then move on.UP YOUR GARDEN CONFIDENCE4 Planting perennials too close together. Remember, these won't stay the same size as they are in the container (really), and they'll be in your garden for a while. Read the plant tag, believe it, and space your plants accordingly.A reisssue of a vintage Bauer Pottery design, this glossy pot is part of the Home by Sunset Collection and has a simple aesthetic that lets plants do the talking. Here, dwarf mat rush makes up the grassy backbone, super-size rosettes of echeveria and aeonium fill in the center, and tiny clumps of sedum and senecio spill over the side. Biltmore from $150; bauerpottery.com Plant design: Jared Crawford, Flora Grubb Gardens, San Francisco; floragrubb.comAfter a family pet trampled some beloved plants, designers Max and Linda Geiser created the Wallter planter. Made of long-lasting spun aluminum, it comes as a 4-foot post (shown), a hanging planter, or wall-mounted pot. Ours are planted with rosemary, silver thyme, and mint. $92 each; wallter.comThe handcrafted Esther pot shows what happens when handmade ceramics rise above the grannyish rap and truly shine. Get it in beachy blue-green (shown with coppery 'Prairie Fire' carex grass) or white and earth-tone palettes. from $16 for a 2-inch pot ($55 as shown); estherstudios.com3 Overfeeding plants. Pour on the fertilizer and plants quickly pump out weak growth, which attracts insect pests. Plus excess fertilizer leaches into groundwater. Use the amount the label says--or less.PROBLEM-SOLVER WITH STYLE5 Planting annuals too far apart. They're going to grow in your garden beds only for a season. You don't need to worry about crowding them. Instead of setting them out in skinny rows, pack them in for impact.Eugene, Oregon's Jayme Jenkins takes the scariness out of planting in her book Garden Rules: The Snappy Synopsis for the Modern Gardener (Cool Springs Press, 2011; $10), coauthored with Billie Brownell. Want the CliffsNotes? Here are her five beginner's mistakes to avoid:THE CLASSIC, REMADE1 Thinking you're a failure because you killed a plant. All gardeners kill plants and often don't know why. "Peonies don't like me. That area must be too damp. Or too dry. Or too dark." The truth is, you may never figure out what happened. Just toss it in the compost and try something else.HANDMADE AT ITS BEST

5 Planting annuals too far apart. They're going to grow in your garden beds only for a season. You don't need to worry about crowding them. Instead of setting them out in skinny rows, pack them in for impact.