I have a small reading nook in the opposite corner, with 3 Brugs, Oriental lilys, and a hanging basket down low.
I love to sit there and see/hear the hummers at the feeder.
So,whats growing on your deck this summer????
Downstairs on the middle deck, I have mostly houseplants.... a Bay laurel, palms, christmas cactus and my amaryllis waiting to be stored in the fall.
Last one... opposite end of the middle deck. Here I have 3 hanging pots of flowers, my epi's, and some succulents.
There is also a lower deck where I have some large hostas in pots but that deck is far too messy for me to photograph and post, LOL!
I love your upstairs deck, Darius, it is lovely and so neat and everything is so green...
Nice place to relax, Darius!!
What do I have on my deck? Puppies and Plants!
Why, thanks, delphiniumdiva!!!!! Caladiums should do well in your area. I love growing them, they are so easy, flashy, dependable and last all season, with very little care. They will not make the winter here and i dig them up and plant them again the following spring, I add to them about every other year or so, mostly because i expand my gardens and have so much shade...
Nat, your babies are so cute! Sorry I didn't get to meet them.
Nat, your puppers and plants are super!!! What is the tall plant back near the fence, with the spike tops?????
Sherry, that is Purple Majesty Millet.
Thanks, Nat!! Purple Majesty well describes it, I've never seen such beautiful millet - I bet the birds love it!!!!
Nat did you start that millet from seed or buy a plant? Is it perennial (she asked hopefully). I've seen it at the local nurseries but its quite expensive.
Diva, I started my millet from seed (ordered from Parkseed). It is not a perennial, but the good news is that it is super easy to start from seed. In fact, it looks like grass when it germinates - - be sure not to weed it out!
Thanks Nat! I'll remember when I place my order with Parks - i love their seeds!
Nat, do you mean that you started the millet plant from seed, this year??? Wow, that's really fast growing. Ya think it might come back after the winter in zone 8a????? I will definitely try some next year. Sun or shade????
Sherry, I started my millet this spring. FULL sun.
Parks lists it as an annual. But it is listed in the data base as a perennial in your zone!! http://plantsdatabase.com/go/54760/index.html
Wow, Nat, that's good news, thanks for the great info, maybe I'll try some this year and see what happens!!!
For heaven sakes my purple is not half that size planted in the ground,what to you feed it the neighbors kids!!!LOL!
Draius.do you live in a rain forest?
Everything is so lush in your background!
I'd grow caladiums but mine seen to melt here in the shade,whats your secret,Sherry?
Thanks, T-man!! I wish I could say that i do something special, but I don't. I do remove the prominent eye (or they will get long/tall, with few leaves), I plant them shallow, an inch or so, I don't fertilize them, or pet them and they get sun, not all day, but I grow them in as much sun as shade, in all areas of the gardens...I would say, in your zone, that they probably don't need too much shade, try more sun and see what happens...
Thanks,I will.love all tropical foliage plants,especially the ones with great colors!
Tropicman, yes this seems like a rainforest lately with all the rain! Our average total rainfall is 65", and 80% of the county is forest. Big difference from when I lived off S. Hydraulic!
Sherry thanks for the tip - caladiums are everywhere round here - in everybody's front yard right next to the hawthornes and the boxwood. That's why I admired your pics - I tend to make the mistake of looking for the unusual and neglecting the obvious! Here I am surrounded by dirt cheap caladium bulbs and I never use them in containers! Got to learn not to be a plant snob. Dumb, dumb...
I wasn't sure about taking off the bloom, so thanks! I find they take any light situation as long as they get lots of water and decent drainage. (Not a problem here lately!) They will even take our 9b full sun - and that's serious!
I did hear our local radio guy recommend starting them indoors in pots to get a jump on the season since they won't sprout (and may rot) till the ground temp hits about 70. Tried that this year for my yard ones and it worked great!
Tropicman, I have PM millet in several locations in my yard but none is growing like the attached picture. The millet and sweet potato vines are growing at an unheard of rate - - that are in my new self watering planter.
http://www.gardeners.com/sell.asp?ProdGroupID=18981&DeptPGID=10866&lstCategory=0&lstSort=&RecGroupNum=1
Lots of folks grow their tomatoes in these planters with good results. The website photo is deceiving - - these planters are really large.
Do I feed them neighborhood children? Nope, just good old earthworm castings and cow manure.
Wow, Nat, we are on the same track, I'm using a tomato, self watering box, to start four brugsmania plants, just to see what happens, they already have buds and the plants are TINY! I LOVE your vines, they are soooo healthy and beautiful, I love the colors, just lovely and oh so neat. Do you have Wandering Jew???? Purple foliage with tiny pink flowers, easy to grow. I love your cement deck on top of the brick, you have a really nifty place!!!
Thanks, so much, Diva!! I was taught in Girl Scouts, a bazillion years ago, to remove the prominent eye from the caladium prior to planting, not the bloom, but, if the bulb has sprouted, I still remove the largest sprout, I just snap it off. The garden in the photos is brand new this year, so I've used lots of container stuff because I wasn't sure where the sun would be and we cut a tree and some limbs. Besides being flashy, easy to grow, and blooming until frost, I've never had with caladiums and disease or bugs and, as far as I know and can see, every bulb I planted came up. The only down side is that, being a watched pot, it seems like it takes forever for them to come up. Is Felder your radio guy??? I used to start them in pots inside, but learned it was just an extra step for me, since they come up so easy here and i expect the same would be true in your zone. In fact you could start a pot now and they would be up before you know it!!! Happy Friday and good luck with your gardening!!!
Thanks Sherry! While I have grown Wandering Jew in the past, I don't have any right now. I like it but only have room for so many hundreds of plants!! LOL Honestly, I have a bunch of favorites and then I rotate in and out new items every year.
Sherry, Dan Gill is our radio guy and he's great except when the "lawn nazis" call - then its nothing but chinch bugs and mole crickets for the next hour...
Nat I find having pots on a watering system makes all the diff - there's just nothing like it for getting massive growth. I imagine the self watering planters give the same effect.
Darius,South Hydraulic has really changed,the fields I use to plow as a kid.now have nice huge homes!
Nat those earthworm castings must be high in nitrogen,or its the cow manure what nice looking growth on your plants.
Tropicman, I think that it's the combination of both the castings and manure that makes the difference. The castings look like black gold, though. They are pretty pricey, though - - and cannot afford to use the casting in the same quanities that I use manure. But I am pretty happy with how things are looking this year.
Here's a pic of my container garden. My yard is totally bricked. I did a quick count - About 140 pots!
Nat well its definately is working for you!!What ever the combination worm and compost mixture!
A big yonkers there Gabagoo!!!And everything looks so good growing in them too,and a plus to that is no WEEDING!
Great Job!
gabagoo, your garden is swell, I love all your pots and I'm nutz for your little white table and chair...I LOVE seeing all the gardens!!!
I am impressed, Gabagoo! I thought that I had a lot of containers (104) - - but you certainly have me beat. I will have to be sure and show your post to my DH who is convinced that no one anywhere has more pots than me!
Here is a planter that I put together. I really like the contrasting color of the foliage.
Tropicman - No weeding?!?! I only wish. There are mucho weeds. not only in the pots, but between the bricks. :o(
Weeds AND volunteers.
All the morming glories growing up behind the bench in the back are from volunteers from last year's plants. I just kept pulling them up & sticking them into the pots around the bench. The onlything I actually planted in thos pots were som hyacinth beans & red runner beans.... oh, and there are a few moon flowers in there as well.
The 2 sunflower plants (to the rightof the gate) are vulunteers as well. the redish one is from a seed from last year-the other is either from last year or from the bird feeder.
Sherrylike- I love the table also. I just bought it this year at Lowes. My old table was larger/4 chairs. Now I have more space for more plants!
Nathalyn- LOL re: more pots! A couple of years ago I had 101 & thought THAT was alot. I have to up the count to 144. I started some geranium cuttings this weekend.
gabagoo, what do you do in the winter??? Or are lots of them evergreens??? It surely is nice and fun to look at too!!
The annuals I just let die. The cannas & callas are dug up & stored in my mother's basement. The perennials are hardy for my zone & stay in their pots. A few I bring in & over winter. I don't have the space or light to bring in a lot. It's mostly the geraniums & coleus cuttings that get saved.
I move all the pots to the back & sides. The pole that's behind the bench gets moved to the middle of the yard & spends the winter as the bird feeder pole.
There are more pics in my albums.
I take a picture every Saturday morning from my bedroom window. This way I can see the changes through the season.
http://www.picturetrail.com/gabagoo
When I put out a new plant I take the picure of it and like you I take reference shots. The way I file them is to put the date on them. If I shoot twice or three times that day I add a 2 o 3 etc.07 05 04 07 05 04 2 That way if I am putting in a shot or need to find it it's easy
gabagoo...you mentioned leaving some hardy perennials in the pots through the winter. What kinds of perennials do you have and do you lose very many? I'm trying to plan my garden and having containers *might* help me NOT feed the rabbits this year. :-)
~julie~
Gosh, gabagoo, I love the photos, your pics are very good, to go along your garden and, my goodness, it's clear that you inherited your work ethic and energy and gardening skills from your mom, I'm most impressed!!!
Edited typing errors...whew!!
This message was edited Jul 5, 2004 5:25 PM
Sherrylike, I'm ROFL!
Whatever Mom knows about gardening, she got from me!
She's always complaining that my mixed pots look better than hers.
Work ethic - yep. That comes from my grandfather.
Mom always says,"Remember, you're Papa's grandaughter!"
Julie88 - Sometimes the perennials make it, sometimes they don't. We had an especially cold winter this time around. I had a hosta last year (my 1st). It was a no-show this year. The same for a Mugwort & some foam flowers. I had 3 yarrows, only one emerged. There were 2 honeysuckles growing up the trellis on each side of the gate. One died... the other is doing so-so. That's why I let those 2 sunflowers stay - they hide the bare trellis & what's left of the honeysuckle. LOL!
The day lilies, however have never failed. They came with the house. The previous homeowners had 1 large pot of them. I don't know how long they were in that pot but after my 2 seasons with them, the pot started to crack. I dumped them out (MAN! Talk about root-bound!), divided them in quarters, gave one to Mom & kept the other 3. That was 4 years ago. The pots are getting pretty full again.
OH, (ahem) MINE look better than MOM'S! LOL!