Container Garden

I went to Cook's Greenhouse after work yesterday. I love doing the containers for the porch, but some years, I just don't seem to get the time. When I found out they had cancelled the Hidden Garden Tour (apparently, forever), I felt compelled to brighten up my front stoop (because, really, it's not a porch) so I could enjoy some kind of garden. (The hanging basket of flowers is a gift from Cam, his thank-you to me for the play.)

I didn't think I'd put it all together last night, but, as I had the soil, and the containers were right there, and I'd just spent $50 at the nursery, with no other free evening in sight until Saturday, I went for it.

In the dark.

Because when I got home, just after 7pm, I had to still get up on the roof to see why the swamp cooler wasn't doing so well, and I was up there until about 9pm, replacing the filter basket for the pump, and cleaning the "spider" so it could send the water over all the panels. Yeah, that was fun. I played with the float to adjust the water level, and now, if it's not actually turned on, like at night, we have a little drip. Not much, but I'll have to get back up there and adjust the float again. It's cooling much better, though, so, time well spent.

Anyway - the planters:

I love my little teacup.

I worry about the plants - small planters need more frequent watering. But if it seems to suffer, I'll move it more into the shade, or I'll re-pot them in something larger. For now, I like this arrangement of flowering cabbage, curry, and, um, I forget what that other silver-green trailing stuff is.

My urn! (and gargoyle!)

This is a lightweight plastic planter, not the heavy stone it looks. So I can move it even when it's full. More flowering cabbage, sweet potato vine in a couple of colors, some velvet black coleus, and a trailing something with pale lavender flowers. (I'm really good with the plant names...)

And, the stacked planter.

I had to pull some weeds and yank out some fever few to give this space. The crumbled bits underneath are from a shallow bowl planter I put it on a couple years back, which suffered in the snow and cold. I'll get a new one, but the "look" of it doesn't bug me, for some reason. I'm into that "natural" look in a yard. (translation: I don't love yard-work, and a few leaves and pine cones are normal, natural elements, right?) I used a lot of coleus here, and lots of sweet potato vine, more of that silvery trailing stuff, then finally added some color with those cute red, um, teensy flowery things.

(I tossed all the little plant tags. Oops.)

I kinda wondered if I'd come out in the morning and wonder what the heck I thought I was doing out there in the dark, with only the porch light to guide me. But I think they turned out well.

I'll take pictures again in a few weeks, when they've had a chance to grow and fill in a bit more. I usually crowd my planters pretty good, and I thought I had enough plants, but then, I added the smallest one on the stack, and I don't know, I didn't seem to have as much as I thought.