Back-Deck Container Garden 2015

Last year I started an adventure in container gardening (see photo below).  It went OK...but more importantly I learned how to do better.  Although, to be fair to myself, one of the main problems was that I went on a work trip at the end of June last year. While I was in Las Vegas, the weather at home was equally desert-like.  I think that my plants took the whole no-rain-for-a-week thing pretty personally. They did bounce back--sort of--but I never managed to harvest more than a few cherry tomatoes before the cold struck and my flowers were never what I would call "lush." 

Container Gardening 2014

This year, I have to go on the same work trip at the end of June, so I decided to do two things differently.  First, I wanted to get my plants in a little earlier so that they would be more established when I leave.  Check!  As of today, everything has been planted for at least a week and a half, and some have been in for nearly three.  Second, I wanted to use bigger pots for most things, rather than lots of smaller ones.  This way the soil in the pots would have the potential to hold more moisture.  Happily, Menards had window box planters on a super-sale a few weeks ago and I bought a big pot for a tomato plant at the end of last season.  So...check!

Container Gardening 2015 

Since I now have some beautiful, matching flower pots (thanks to my very own completed painting project!), my deck now looks lovely...and I'm all set to grow the following:

• 2 varieties of cherry tomatoes (Sugar Gloss and Supersweet 100)
• A mixed-color assortment of snapdragons
• White alyssum
• White Nicotiana
• Pale yellow and white-and-purple petunias  

The one thing that makes me a little sad is that my hanging pot holder--purchased at last year's Renaissance Festival--is much too heavy to safely hang from the hooks on my deck.  I don't think the hooks are really anchored in the beams of the porch ceiling, so I don't want to risk it.  However, I think that the "hanger" actually looks pretty good as a "vertical-rack-thing-leaning-in-the-corner," don't you? :)

Matching Flower Pots: Variations on a theme!

Last year I did some container gardening, with a whole bunch of pots on my back deck.  It was pretty fun and I wanted to do it again this year, but I also wanted this year's set of plantings to help make my back porch/deck a bit classier.  Last year was for experimentation, but this year is for the cool version, or so I told myself.  I figured that the best--read that cheapest and easiest--way to do this was to color coordinate my flower pots.  Since last year I had a turquoise seat cushion and matching turquoise holders for my movable lights, this seemed like a legit choice for a color scheme. 

So, I went to the home improvement store and bought a can of ridiculously bright turquoise spray paint.  I went with a glossy Rust-oleum paint that is advertised to adhere to plastic and work well outside.  Then I rounded up the planters and pots that I wanted to use, spread them out on a plastic drop cloth in my garage (it was raining outside) and started painting.  Oh, yeah.  And I decided that it would be super-fun to have my tomato cages match my planters, so I painted them, too.  

To get a nice, even finish, I needed at least two coats of paint and a few pieces needed three.  I also painted the sides and bottoms first, then flipped them up and painted the tops and inside edges.  All this crazy painting meant that I ended up going back to get a second can of spray paint.  I forgot to write down the name of the color, but luckily the one I picked was such a wild and notable color that I didn't have to worry about getting the wrong color of turquoise on that second store trip!  

  

I painted almost all of the pots/planters, with the exception of two of my four smaller pots that were a darker turquoise already. I left these their original color to add what I'm thinking of as a "sophisticated color contrast."  And then when I think that, I laugh inside.  :)  

After the base coat was done, I decided to add some more "sophisticated color contrast" [hehehe!] to a few other pots.  These were the terra cotta and plastic pots and saucers for my hanging plant holder.  For these, I bought a sample of a contrasting color of paint.  I could have gone to a craft store, but those are far away.  For less than the price of the gas for a round trip drive to a craft store plus the cost of a small bottle of craft paint ($3.75 to be more exact), I bought a small jar of lighter turquoise Behr Satin Gloss house paint.  I used that to paint some designs on the terra cotta pots (some free-hand and some with painters tape) and saucers, and to paint one plastic pot completely.  Fun note, painting the plastic using a sponge brush made it more textured and suddenly it looked like a ceramic pot, rather than a cheap $1 plastic version.  Cool, huh?  

After the designs were done, I coated the pots and saucers with 3 coats of indoor/outdoor glossy varnish (left-over from use in my Coaster and Glitter Shoes projects, actually). Then they were ready for planting.  Here are a few pictures, but you can see even more of my new and *very* sophisticated porch decor in my up-coming post about this year's container gardening.     

Front Garden: 2015 Edition

My townhouse has a small front garden area.  When I moved in, it had a bush and 4 hostas in front, and a clematis climbing up a little trellis in a rocked in the back area with my air conditioning unit.  Since I moved in, I've had potted plants out front on my steps, trimmed the bush (well, my dad trimmed it for me, actually), and added a little bit of rock on the side closest to the steps.

Rock and mulch look good for a while, but they just seem to sink into the ground over time.  Which means it has to be replaced periodically.  This spring, it was obvious that I needed a bunch of rock and to add some mulch.  And since I was at it, I figured I would add some annual plants, too.  Luckily for me, Menards was having a big sale that included annuals, the white rock I wanted, and a bunch of other things.  

I cleaned out leaves from the back corner, then weeded, and then added some mulch in the front and white garden marble in the back.  Originally I bought 3 bags of rock and 1 of mulch, but I had to go back and get another 2 of rock. They are awfully heavy, but don't seem to cover very much ground.  Since the rock was only on sale through yesterday, though, I had to do it the same day. Nothing like a sale to motivate a purchase and some action on a needed project!

I also added 2 rubber paver stones, one on each side, and put a small urn-shaped pot on top of each one.  (I bought the urns on clearance last year at the end of the season.)  I planted "spikes," yellow rose moss, and purple petunias in them.  Hopefully they will fill in nicely and add color to the front of the house throughout the summer.

The final touches were:

• a hanging pot of purple and yellow pansies on a shepherd's crook hanger (both purchased at a significant savings from the Menard's sale)
• my weird little, plastic hedgehog outdoor figurine
• a solar-powered decorative light globe
• the larger rocks previously located by the air conditioner 

Everything looks so much better: neater, cleaner, and more home-y.  This is my first spring/summer house project, and I think it turned out nicely.  Here are some before and after images:

An Experiment in Container Gardening

I have a really nice porch that stretches across the entire back of my townhouse, and last summer I had a small table and a chair out there.  It was a great space to enjoy a cup of tea or a smoothie and read my Sunday newspaper.  This year, I decided to experiment with container gardening.  Partly because I have tons o' space on my porch, partly to see if I can grow something edible, and partly because I think flowers would make my summertime Sunday ritual even better.  

One of my co-worker's kids was selling plants from Gerten's greenhouses for a spring school fundraiser last month.  Perfect timing! I ordered two cherry tomato plants and three 6-packs of mixed-color snapdragons.  (I love, love, love snapdragons!  Pretty, amazing color, and such a cool shape.)  The plants arrived on the 16th and I got them on Monday the 19th.  They lived on the deck in their (sad) little containers until this past weekend, when I actually had some time to devote to them.  

This Sunday I went to the local Menards garden center and bought some gardening supplies, including some smallish pots, a few bamboo u-shaped stakes, a few flowers, and some potting soil.  And then I got planting. Well, OK.  You got me.  First, I finally took my Christmas lights down off my deck railing.  Immediately after that, though, I got planting!

The photo above is a panoramic shot of my brand new set o' pots.  The large tan pots are the tomatoes.  The small, square turquoise pots are pink and yellow rose moss.  The smaller tan pots are geraniums, alternating white and "star."  From what I could tell by not seeing a photo or a real version of the star geranium in full bloom, I think they will be a bright pink and white, but I'm not sure.  The round turquoise pots are the mixed snapdragons.  (In case you are wondering, the cushion for my deck chair is a turquoise-y color, which is why the pots are the color they are....)      

I'm really excited to see how everything grows and blooms, and plan to post photos as they grow.  How cool would it be to have a time lapse set of photos showing growth?  Maybe I'll start taking a photo every day or every other day when I get home from work.  And hopefully by the end of the summer I will be eating my tiny tomatoes and declaring container gardening a success that must be repeated year after year!