Starting a patio "landscaped" container garden

Hello, I live in a cave, well really its a second floor apartment with one window in each bedroom, and a three paneled glass patio door in the living room as the only natural light sources. With fairly large overhangs covering the windows, and enough tree shadows that light rarely gets in. I have lived here for three years. I have tried to grow houseplants. They have slowly died off, or done nothing. Even with the introduction of "natural light" light bulbs (for me as much as the plants), moving them around, changing watering from almost none to drowning. Nothing worked.

I had basically given up when we (my older brother who is my roommate until the end of the month and I) left for a 45 day trip around the UK this January. I already had two sets of people coming in as often as they were willing (I have two cats who are my children and it was a long trip to leave two cats alone, even with feeding etc), so I decided to put all my plants on the porch, if they lived cool, if not well they probably wouldn't left where they were either. My porch was all but bare, with the exception of the chair and ashtray I use to smoke, and the plants I had already decided would do better outside. So, we come back in March, we had weeks of snow in the UK(I didn't mind), but here they had record "hot" and dry weather. My plants were sprouting leaves, flowers, etc and none of them (other than the outdoor spider plants) had done anything since I brought them home. Then I added a couple more plants, a picnic table, stuck some onions I got from the farmers market that were drying out in a pot, added some more plants. Then the thought hit me; I could actually have a garden on my porch. Even the plants I have right now make my life seem so much better.

So, I am working on planning a garden. I know I can't do much except take over already potted perennials, evergreens, and plant spring bulbs till after winter. But, I can do that and plan now. As well as work on non-plant landscaping. My porch is 6 ft x 15 ft, with Some Sun to Full Shade lighting plus some reflected light, well wind shielded by surrounding pines and enclosed design of porch. I live in zone 7b, with a lot of yearly rainfall of about 52 inches, with dryish Summers, and mild winters (I had to bring my Spider plant [Chlorophytum comosum] in two years ago because we got a week of snow and the leaves were beginning to droop).

I'll add to this as I make changes to my garden, but does anyone have any suggestions at this point?

Here are a couple of pictures of what I have currently. With no money, and not much before October. Though I am mining a couple of "sources" for plants.

The Plant side:


This message was edited Aug 30, 2005 3:24 AM

BTW I am planning to fill up about 1/3 of the space with plants.

The currently non-plant side

That is going to be so pretty all filled up with plants. Will watch this thread and hope for more pics as you go along.
Sharon

I added two new plants, I'm not sure what they are yet. They were at my work, and being neglected. We're doing remodeling and they needed to go so I took them. I could have had a third, but it needed some work, more than I thought I could do. So I gave it to my mom, the horticulture major. Got her AA last year. I'm so proud of her.

Here is the first plant, a small tree.

Here is the second plant.

This allowed me to get plants into the non-plant side of the porch, which helps a lot.

The first one looks like a ficus and the second one looks like a rubber plant. (I could be wrong. Try posting your pics on the Plant ID forum for help. The folks there are very knowledgeable.) Both of these can live with the low light of indoor but I think they will thrive on your patio. Regardless of what kind they are, I think you can revive them by repotting them in new potting mix and/or larger pots and give them some all-purpose plant foods.

Which direction does your patio face? This will help narrow down your list of possible plants to put there.

BTW, those crates that you have would make nice size planters if you line them with HD trash bags and fill them up with potting mix. Don't forget the drain holes.

I think you might be right, but I did post to ID. They've lived indoors for years. I do intend to repot them, and several other plants. The "rubber plant" needs to be trimmed badly, the other just needs to get regular water and some sun.

Technically my patio faces South. I get some morning and afternoon light, but the porch is pretty much a shade porch. Though I'm going to try to grow a couple fruit and vegetables next Spring that probably need more light than I have, but I want to try anyways. I'm trying to decide what I want to do with it mishmash, native, edible, evergreen, or what. So, I'm making a list of plants I'll consider, either correct for my environment, or things I really want. Then I'll decide what I'm getting. That and collecting stray plants. Like the two above.

I hadn't considered using milk crates as planters. I was actually considering covering what I have with canvas, painted to look like rock, add a few natural rocks and make a light weight rock garden.

For peets sake dont trim the second one. just devide it.
Janett

This message was edited Aug 31, 2005 9:13 AM

The trimming I'm talking about is to cut back the dead sections. There is dead plants and I believe some dead parts in the container.

ok lol had me scared for a minute.Try to devide it. if some breake root in water. you will benefit from deviding in BIG beautyfull plants, give it time

I agree with the ficus and rubber plant id's, they look just like mine (even the dead parts hehe)
If you like foliage plants, consider some crotons. I am starting a little collection and I am getting addicted. The foliage is beautiful, I love to stare at them.
I can't wait to see everything you get!

Rachel

I got them IDed on the ID forum. The tree is a Ficus (Ficus benjamina), I'm still a little unsure on the variety, could be a standard sized one that has been held in check by the pot, or a miniature version. The second one is a Rubber plant (Ficus elastica), I had thought that, but it didn't seem right for some reason when I was writing. I should be repotting those two at least this weekend. Some of the others need to be transferred to draining pots as well, but that might have to wait a little while till I have money for pots. right now they are under the roof, and we haven’t been getting heavy rains, but if they’re staying outside they need to be repotted by the time the rainy season starts up again. October at the latest.

My mom has some crotons and I think they are lovely plants, but I have two problems with them, either of which might be ok on its own, but when combined makes it a plant I'll avoid (and both problems are somewhat shared by the Ficus and Rubber plant, which means I might be finding homes for them this winter). First is I'm trying to plant with Evergreens or Hardy plants so I can leave as many of them on the porch as possible over the winter. Second is that they are poisonous to cats.

As I said, either of these problems could be dealt with. If they were Hardy, but poisonous, my cats don't go on the porch without me being present, and I try to keep them from eating anything except the grass I have planted for them. They would love to eat my Spider plants but the grass helps curb this behavior, and I think I have lost the battle of keeping them from eating moths, but poisonous plants outside is ok.

If they needed to be brought inside during the winter, but were not poisonous, that's ok. A couple months inside is not going to kill them, I have a free room as of October (my older brother/room mate is moving to Seattle to do his Masters) that I can leave the curtains open in, which will help with light problems. At this point I have no other use for the room other than maybe sticking an extra bed in there and storage. But, I can't watch my cats all the time, and they have been known to eat plants. Which is the reason my Spider plants went outside to begin with. So, poisonous plants are not acceptable.

Any suggestions on really nice plants that are hardy to 30 F and not poisonous to cats I would happily consider.

Well, I've been collecting seeds for the last couple days. I have Tall Oregon Grapes seeds (Berberis aquifolium) prepared. I have seeds or seed heads for thistle (Cirsium edule I think), Catnip (Nepeta cataria), Snowberry (Symphoricarpos Albus var. Laevigatus), Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor), Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium), some type of Rose, Salal (Gaultheria Shallon), and a couple other plants I need to ID. I got some more new plants. Another Christmas cactus, several spider plant seedlings, and a very small fern.

I know it's not much, but it means a lot to me.

As of Thursday, I can start buying things for my garden. I have several native seeds I'm going to try to propagate, and a few I've nabbed from other people's gardens. I have the start of a garden now, plus a vague plan for what I want. Finally, what actually spawned the beginning statement, all of my spider plants have babies (I realized I'm not sure what they are actually called, I don't think it is spider babies, I think that name is a hold over from when I was a kid).

I'm not sure I can explain how much this means to me or why. I thought I had a black thumb for years. When I first moved here in September of 2002 I got several plants. I have always loved plants, and I had grand hopes of plants in every room. Many did not survive. I had a couple herbs that came back the first year, and then didn't. I had a couple my cats ate to the point they couldn't recover (the plants, not the cats, I'm careful about having only cat friendly plants in the house). One I'm not sure why it lived for two years nor why it suddenly died early this year. One, a door hanging hen-and-chick just didn't get planted right. I had a "Christmas tree" (think Charlie Brown's Christmas) that was badly planted, but which died due to a combination of lack of water (it got moved due to the apartment owners redoing our porch, all the other plants got moved indoors, it took them forever to get the job finished, about three months, and I forgot that it was outside still, and now under cover), and then too wet a winter. A Christmas cactus that was planted in a drainless pot, that I could never seem to find the right water balance with, either it was too much and it did that weird soggy segment thing that succulents do when they get too much water or too little and it shriveled, even when the other two were doing fine. I had a cactus that got diseased, and I couldn’t figure out how to cure it. I’m sure there are a couple that aren’t covered by this, but I can’t think of them, and you get the idea.

But, I have had a few that have survived the years, and which I am quite attached to, even the geraniums (originally a geranium) that I did not like when I got, but have come to love. They amount to three spider plants, two Christmas cactus, and two geraniums (I tripped over the plant and broke a piece off summer before this one, stuck it in a pot from one of the plants that didn't make it, and it survived and flourished). These are the heart of my garden no matter where it goes from here, because they have been with me since I moved out of my parents house, they have stuck it out, and flourished when they got the chance, which showed me that I could have a garden.

The first spider plant was the first indoor plant to go outdoors more or less permanently, it didn't hang like the other ones, and I couldn't prevent my cats from eating it. That was very early on. I thought I had killed it two winters ago. I had brought all the outdoor plants up next to the porch window for the winter and they were doing fine, until we had a snow that had been sitting for five days (it stayed for a week in total, unusual in this area). I had been checking the plants daily, and realized that the spider plants leaves looked like two week old lettuce all the sudden. I brought it indoors with little hope that it would survive at that point; I kept it inside until spring, did what I could for it, and then put it outside to get it out from under foot. It quickly put out new leaves, flourished over the summer, and ended up doing way better than the other spider plants that had been indoors all winter. This was probably why I decided to put the plants outside this year while we in the UK, with instructions to bring them in if it got really cold, or snowed. We ended up having record heat over January and February here. When I got back from England this year in May it had the start of the first baby it has put out since I've owned it. I have attached a picture I took of it tonight. This was my first success, and the seed of everything else that I have put on this thread, and the event that triggered the chain that led to me joining DG at all. Shortly after we got back from England the Geraniums put out the first bloom stocks they have ever put out for me, this gave me hope that I could own plants. Then the Christmas cactus put out new segments for the first time since I've owned them, and I realized it wasn't me but the apartment.

I've already explained how the garden idea came to me, but it was this event that led to me accepting new plants, rather then waiting for my last remaining plants to die. So all of my core plants were flourishing, and trying to reproduce for the first time since I've had them, except my Variegated Spider plants. I wasn't upset about this, I was happy they were looking so healthy. But, when I realized the two Variegated Spider plants had put out babies, I actually believed for the first time that I could actually pull my garden idea off, and the idea has come to mean a lot to me. I think it has come to symbolize my life to a certain extent. I feel that if I can get this to work, I can get my life to the point where I am doing more than just surviving. I don't know if that will make sense to anyone, but it is the best I can do to explain.

This message was edited Sep 14, 2005 7:26 AM

I noticed this one had a baby this weekend.

This message was edited Sep 14, 2005 7:28 AM

Here is the final core plant to try to reproduce. I noticed this tonight.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'll continue adding things here as the garden progresses.

This message was edited Sep 14, 2005 7:31 AM

hey those look nice, you are doing a great job! I understand what you mean, I really didn't care much about gardening until this year though, I figured I couldn't do it. I hated the holly bushes in front of the house and wanted to replace them and here I am! I am starting to experiment with house plants now, I hope they survive the winter, it makes me so nervous.

Can't wait to see your new updates.

Rachel

Rachel - Thank you

zhinu, love what you are doing. Must feel quite wonderful to see you have a green thumb afterall!

May I make a suggestion? I saw catnip in your seeds list. Being a cat lover myself, I always grow some, and when it begins to grow, my cat will roll in it, and eventually kill it. This year I put it in a hanging basket she cannot reach, and then I often cut some fresh and put it down on the deck for her. The plant has done well in the shade, too.

At least for the moment, my cats are on an outdoors under supervision only, if that. They like the roof too much. If I get my porch enclosed it'll be a different issue. Thanks for the suggestion.

I’m picking up some pots today, so I can start getting some of my plants repotted. First step, then nurseries later this week I hope.

Laura

I just found this thread. I like your "lifts & levels" arrangement with the milk crates. Containers of different sizes at different heights will definitely add to the "landscaped" look of your patio! I like to put plants like your ficus in nice, extra-big containers so there is room for underplanting or for placing smaller pots around the base of the tree. When buying containers, consider the lightweight ones as an alternative to ceramic or terra cotta... even if you're only moving them in & out a few times during the year, heaving big ceramic containers around can get old fast. Sounds like you can mostly leave them outside, but for example I think the ficus will want to come in if evening temps drop much below 40.

Plants are a pleasure & an inspiration. I'm glad you're having fun with your expanding "garden!"

The current pictures are the "I have no money" version; just what I could "adopt". The Ficus and rubber plants badly need replanting. I hope to do that Wed, since they need to come in that night, it's already reaching 40 degrees here. I'm getting the pots tomorrow. I got money on the 15th, but haven't been able to get to the store. I was going to make my brother/roommate's room, he just moved out, my winter plant room, but I think fate might be intervening with that plan. Oh well, the fates will play with mortal men.

Hi Zhinu........How's this for a container garden with wow factor?? I thought it was just a stunning combination & a little different from so much else you see. The color combination is what does it. I spotted this very big municipal planter in White Rock, BC during a recent visit & took a pic so I'd remember the colors & plants used for future use in my own garden.
Something like this could easily be done on a balcony or other small space. Just down-size it. Some of the plants used are potato vine (the lime green trailing plant), dalias (the orange/peach colored plants) & mauve petunias.
Happy Gardening!

Wow, Zhinu, welcome to the club.
I had a ficus ever since college in the same pot, and my Dad's like wow, how do you get it to stay so small? LOL by ignoring it! I love the summer cause all my indoor plants get to go on summer vacation from me and let mother nature take care of them.
One thing I do for my patio garden is try to use different ways of displaying plants. Some are stacked on an old stepladder. Some are big ones on the ground or on a cinderblock. I think having plants at different heights is important. Include vines if you can, different shapes and sizes, and hanging baskets, too. Mine are in all different kinds of containers. One wkd I went to garage sales and picked up bric-a-brac and then planted annuals in them - very cute.

Lots of luck and keep us posted.

xxx Carrie

This message was edited Oct 11, 2005 11:52 PM

Zhinu,
just saw this site and thought of you.
http://www.frontrangeliving.com/garden/Patiogarden.htm
xxx Carrie

This message was edited Oct 27, 2005 1:17 PM

Thank you for taking a look at "my" thread. I haven't been online much recently. I became primary care provider for an 11-year-old girl a couple of weeks ago, pretty much at the same time as I started Fall quarter. I'm afraid everything in my life has suffered a bit from the combination of the two.

I bought some bulbs, and I have some seeds I want to plant, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I also added several more plants to my porch since I last updated here. Two ivy, two exotic geraniums, one standard geranium (red), mint, and a couple of other things that I can't remember or don't know the names of at the moment. My life is slowly starting to settle into it's new configuration. I might be able to get pictures up sometime this week. I'm actually kind of cheating at the moment, there are several things I should be doing before this, but I only have an hour so I figured I should check in here.

I do like that container; it does have a lot of character. I'd like to do more with the mixed potting, but so far, I'm just collecting on charity. I thought I would have money to start buying things, but fate had other plans, maybe by spring.

I love the blue pots at the top of that link, even though I know they are too heavy for my plans. I take a better look at the page later.

hi, seeing you are from olympia, I am from poulsbo, wa--pretty much same climate -- we might be slightly warmer, but I do all my gardening thus far in containers although we live in a house -- the yard is full of ivy which makes it impossible to grow anything else, so I've done all container gardening. I have a back deck and have created a virtual jungle of flowers -- mostly annuals, but many geraniums and a few others that do come back if I keep them in garage over winter. however, my comment is since you mention having limited funds, to visit all the garage sales you can -- they are a great source for flower pots, and other items which can be "creative" pots. I have purchased old vases, and others ceramic pots from non gardeners, and then even boots, and other interesting containers which make wonderful homes for succulents and are great conversation pieces -- good luck --

Thank you for the advice. Sorry it took me so long to respond. I haven't been on recently.