You might recall that last year my little patio garden didn’t fare too well. (For more on that, visit last year’s blog here.) This year, I’ve put more research and thought behind my little patio garden. If you have a patio garden, you likely already understand the struggle and challenge.
Our patio is totally covered and faces south. This means we get an odd combination of heat, shade and a tiny bit of sun in the summer. Last year, I tried veggies. It was much too shady on my patio, so we didn’t get any tomatoes and only one pepper. This year, I’ve given up on veggies, and decided to go with mostly flowering annuals.
To take advantage of the sunniest part of the patio, the railing, we bought two railing planters. I decided to buy snapdragons, vinca (or periwinkle) and lobelia for these sunny planters. After planting the snapdragons and vinca on the sunnier side of the planter, I added the lobelia on the part shade-sun side. Lobelia can tolerate more shade than the rest of these plants, so I’m hoping they all will enjoy this arrangement.
Then, for the shaded lower areas of the patio, I got some red impatiens to go in my lovely cobalt blue clay pot. And, I bought a fern! The one I got is called Mairis’s Hardy Maidenhair, which loves shade. This beautiful fern reminds me of my mom’s garden up north. She has a full bed of these lovely ferns in her fantastic garden. Maybe I should feature her garden on the blog one day, I know you would love it!
Earlier this spring I planted a lot of succulents, and they have been doing super well. This isn’t too much of a surprise to me, as I tend to underwater my plants. I did notice over the past few weeks they are really loving their situation. It must be all this heat we’ve been having in SoCal lately.
UPDATE: Since writing the first draft of this post, I found two caterpillars who ate all my snapdragon flowers. Needless to say, I’m pretty bummed. And I’m sure you really don’t need to know the fate of those caterpillars, do you? Well, I’m gonna share anyway – I squished them. I know, so barbaric!
Below are some pictures of what the patio garden looks like. It’s still a work in progress…as all gardens are, am I right?
Wishing you cheerful blooms in your garden,
-HM
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