I would put a food grade plastic liner inside, with holes punched in it at the bottom for drainage, if your planters are large. If the planters are small enough, just plant into another planter and pop it in.

Hi Hamish, these planters are very cool! Great potential here. - from what I can see; your home has brown and red tones, it depends on the look you are trying to achieve - however if you were aiming to integrate these planters into the existing colour pallet I would go for something with orange, brown, or red undertones - I know orange sounds frightening! Bare in mind that colours look very different when under direct sunlight, or dark shadows cast by trees etc.. Before painting it's always wise to do a test on a piece of thick paper or cardboard; see how it looks in morning light, afternoon sun, dim light at dusk, and so on... What is the light like at your place? If your home doesn't get much sun I would go for a lighter colour (lighter greys with brown undertones) to bounce off the sunlight that does reach it. A darker colour (browns, oranges) would add impact, a focal point, and would boast the greenery, as the natural colours from your plants would be intensified against a darker backdrop. I have outlined some colours that would look well balanced with the rest of your exterior - Good luck! - I look forward to seeing an update

I have a planter box running the length of my pool - about 8 metres. I am looking for some evergreen low maintenance plants to provide some greenery as in the illustration below. IF anyone can help with suggestions that would be appreciated.

You have lots of posts Belinda! Thinking about this one and the one about lillypilly along the fence line, perhaps you could move the figs from deck and plant along fence. Unless you are on top of pruning and shaping the figs, they may quickly outgrow the pots. We had 5 similar size figs in pots, which we used to topiary but it wasn't long before they had split the pots and grown to about 4-5m high! They provided excellent privacy as were quite thick. We did have to cut them down eventually as they were too high to maintain and they were too close to our pool. I'm not a huge fan of Lillypillies - mock orange / muraya are a quick growing one you might like. Either way, if on your deck, you'll need to make sure the planters/pots are large enough to allow the trees to grow enough so that they provide privacy.