On Jane Street, we had a garden, and I do miss that at our new apartment. I am a gardener; I am the guy working in the garden, at night, in the rain. Last summer there were a bunch of empty containers on the roof of our building so we dragged them to the front of the building and filled them with dirt and plants and flowers. It was successful so we did it again this summer.
My friend Rebecca Cole the garden designer said the trick with a container garden is to get three containers, in different heights, and then put three different kinds of plants in each container. Group them together, and voila, you begin to get something that looks like it naturally blew in. Like Rebecca, I am not a fan of the big pot with a circle of geraniums and a smaller circle of something else and then something sticking out of the middle.
These are simple things - geranium, impatiens, petunias, vines, ivy. The vines from last summer survived the winter and flourished this summer. Vines and ivy and floppy plants cover the pots so you don't really see them. I like pale colors -- pink, salmon, white. I'm not crazy about bright hot colors like orange or red in the garden, I think they're kind of distracting. I also like leaves that are variegated with color or white; they stand out so you can see the leaf shape better. With little time and expense it's an easy project but it brings so much and it's pleasant to leave the house and come home to. So far no one has taken the pots.
Up the steps to the front door.
Ivy and morning glory vines are creeping up the railing. I like plants that create movement so the eye goes along.
Not bad for a nothing little corner, right?
I clip the variegated ivy and stick the clippings in other pots -- a cheap way to propagate.
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