Weekend Project: Container Gardening

lazar landscape

Looking for a quick weekend project to spruce up your patio, deck or even you front porch? Container gardening is a great, easy project to do just that. Whether you are sprucing up some pots you already have, planning to buy new containers or creating a specific container garden, you will be pleased with your results.

Have some boring clay pots? Add some interest by sprucing up your old pots with paint! Spray paint can be used on clay pots; even plastics can now be painted with spray paint. Think about creating a design on your pot, use painters’ tape to create color blocking details or stripes. When purchasing new pots you can be a little adventurous with color depending on the selection available to you. One thing to consider when deciding on container colors is the plants you are going to plant. Make sure the plants and the pots…

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All Decked Out

Garden Shoots

As a garden designer,  I have a confession to make: I don’t think of myself as particularly inspired when it comes to containers (planters, pots, whatever you want to call them). My colleague Kripa is the star at our company, and I always love to look at and photograph her creations. Here are two of my favorites.

This year, however, I decided to lift my own back deck out of the doldrums. For Mother’s Day weekend, with no one to entertain but myself, I headed to my local independent garden center. First, I picked out some shade-tolerant flowers for the front, north-facing stoop, where two square concrete planters that are actually too small for the space flank the front door. I picked out white caladiums, white impatiens, Begonia ‘Benitochiba,’ and a dark coleus. I’m still waiting for this combo to start filling in, unfortunately.

On the east-facing deck, I…

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Containers for the Shade

SoundEagle says: Hi Melissa,

Here in the southern hemisphere, our caladium plants are still dormant in the subtropical, temperate and cool regions. They are greatly missed.

Happy September gardening and landscaping to you!

Garden Shoots

As I’ve confessed before, container planting isn’t my strong suit. Occasionally I get a burst of inspiration, but more often I consult my colleague Kripa here at Landscape Projects, who is a genius when it comes to putting together gorgeous pots. Here’s a sample, for a shady garden, which she created recently primarily using annuals we already had on hand.

I love the simplicity and elegance of this design, created for a client who prefers only white flowers (with a touch of blue permitted – see the next photo).  The backdrop is a Boston fern from a ten-inch hanging basket (not hardy in the garden but gorgeous for summer), accented by Caladium ‘Ghost’ in front. White Scaevola and chartreuse Ipomaea ‘Sweet Marguerite’ (sweet potato vine) round out the composition. All the plants are shade-tolerant.  In a matching container not far from this one, white begonias joined the party, but…

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Potted succulents

burritotailsucculent

Potted succulents create a distinct look. Two large pots placed beside the entrance draw attention to the differences in textures and colors. They require minimal attention yet create a colorful addition to this deck. The rocks beside the tall pot also add to the natural, uncomplicated look of this arrangement. A great idea to try if you have a wooden, brick or cement deck such as this one.

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

the well promise

We’re currently living in a rental townhome with no yard, which is deeply saddening when you have a strong desire for a vegetable garden. Making the best of things, we set up some pots on the deck and filled them with our favorite herbs, tomatoes, and peppers. We’ve been doing this for a couple years and are still learning new things, like what size pots are right for each plant.

I’m not the greatest at starting from seed (what’s the opposite of a green thumb?) so I always make sure to buy healthy plants that have already started to mature. I’ve found things I’m good at (thyme, mint, peppers) and things I’m not so good at (cilantro, tomatoes, dill). I always have a few in between things that still need some work like basil (something keeps eating it) and parsley (it doesn’t seem to like extreme heat).

We constantly experiment with…

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Beautiful Exteriors: The Patio

for love of fashion and design

I have a shared backyard at my apartment complex, but dream of an outside space that could be designed anyway I like….below are some fun and creative ideas I’ve found to share.

Starting with a small apartment balcony or deck I love this image of a cute garden bench and how cozy yet tidy it is.

Another good use of space is this wall garden. Colorful and modern, its a great idea if you want to grow plants, and have no floor space for them.

This patio furniture looks really comfy and the plants double as a privacy screen.

Loving the color scheme for this medium sized patio setup as well as the hanging lanterns. It must be so pretty at night too.

This patio is big enough to accommodate larger planter boxes for a a lovely kitchen garden. 

Can’t beat the view, but the shade structure over the deck is very sleek…

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On The Deck

The Midnight Garden

“Rabbit rabbit” and welcome June!   This morning brought news of Br’er Bear‘s arrival to our town of Orleans, but I’ve not heard further updates about his whereabouts as the day progressed.    Hopefully he’s enjoying a little quiet resort time before the weather takes a turn, although he does seem to attract the occasional helicopter.

Meanwhile, I thought it was time for a few more photos from the deck garden.   When I first moved in here, I was more accustomed to growing in the ground than in containers.   As you’ve seen in the last two years, I got over that pretty quick.  One of the things I like best about my deck garden is that it’s all modular.  I can move things around so every planting gets a fair shot at the different sun exposures of different parts of the deck, and also re-arrange based on what’s blooming. …

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Out in the Rain

The Midnight Garden

We’ve had rain all day.   Nothing torrential, or sideways, or anything exciting/annoying like that.  Just rain, enough to water things well, to clean off the pollen and give everything a good soaking.  The cucumber seedlings seem especially satisfied.  It’s always welcome this time of year, and I appreciated a few more minutes to sleep in this gray morning, instead of getting up to water everything on the deck.

You can see in the big planter (center) that the morning glories and cosmos are growing nicely there.   It’s the planter down and to the right that’s on my mind tonight, though.  The lantana (yellow) is starting it’s third summer on the deck and is now happily in full bloom.  The red million-bells petunias are starting to do their thing and there’s a legion of white allyssum growing happily around the edges, but not in bloom yet.

I’ve…

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Red dot award winner — Greenbo designer Rail and Deck Window box

ed and ruby

The Greenbo XL Designer Rail and Deck Window box has been awarded with the globally sought-after red dot award for its fine design language in the home and garden product design category.

The 30-member expert jury judged 4,515 designs submitted by creative heads and manufacturers from all over the world. They were impressed with the box’s unique solution for growing plants and flowers in an urban environment. The box is placed over your rail or deck to save balcony floor space in tight areas.

Its seamless design boasts a built-in draining solution with two removable, cleanable and replaceable trays, anchoring mechanism for theft protection, patented stability mechanism and six modern colours to choose from.

The product design competition has existed since 1955, awarding an internationally recognised quality seal.

www.greenbo.com.au

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Garden Delights–Potted Herbs

Morristown: A View From Our Back Porch

Just a little update on how the potted herbs are doing.  We’ve had a great deal of rain lately which has helped to alleviate watering so much.  And it’s a good thing!

With the Sweet Basil growing this well, I need to get me some fresh mozzarella and make a margherita pizza! The tomatoes are starting to come in, too. So I can’t wait to try out a new pizza crust recipe!

Catnip – this is my first time growing it. I can’t wait to design and make kitty toys for my little feline “children” and know that there is nothing funky in these herbs since I don’t put any pesticides on my plants!

 

My seedling marigolds are growing well.  These are from seeds I picked from last year’s crop of marigolds.  It’s amazing to me just how many seed pods I was able to collect and now see…

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