Hello Meg, bit by the fever weeks ago, and in atl releif is possible...trusting that my balcony porch / deck will provide protection in the event of a temp dip b-lo 32 btwn now and 04/15...i've b-gun a garden plan that will flow with the significant seasonal differences especially the effects of great variances in temperature and moisture over a seven month growing / viewing / enjoying period...i learned last year that "one size fits all" (spring to fall) is not smart and that you miss a lot of fun and satisfaction... so in my "morning sun corner", i got baskets and pots of pansies, petunias, violas, trailing lantanna and kitty grass....varied the height of the pots using various methods...very lush...gotta git me a digital camera and post pix...LOL...also took a shady corner and started a "cool area" with fountain, lush greens and ferns...still working out the other two corners...LOL...take care.

Heck yeah, I'd like to see pictures, Tommie!

I'm still in the 'one size fits all' mode. I'm too lazy and life is too complicated :-)>

I'm going crazy right now because I can't even remember what I definitively decided was going in those window boxes that burned things to a crisp last July.

Hello Meg and Tommie,

I am a newbie here, just starting to attempt a patio garden on my back deck. I am in rural Ontario, Canada, and the deck area is very shaded. It will be challenging to try and get just the right kinds of plants, I think. I am not a very good gardener. I am a retired dairy farmer(into a second career) and was great with animals, but not always good with plants. I will appreciate any help that you can give me. I have a vision in my mind's eye about an "oasis" where I can have the privacy from the main street that I would like. Not that it is a teeming city. Only 4400, but after farm living, it seems busy to me. I want to put up some hanging plants, and lots of pots. I want to find a good picture of a patio full of potted plants to paste on the fridge to inspire me. I shall enjoy your ideas and input. My season will start later...after May long weekend to be frost free.

Welcome, daphnel! "Oasis" is what it is all about for most of us. I suspect if you were great with animals, you will also become great with plants; the principle is the same ... learn what they need/want, provide it in the right proportions along with TLC :-)

Make sure you use potting mix in your baskets/containers, not regular garden soil, which is too heavy for containers and doesn't drain well. A visit to the Container Gardening Forum might be worth your while.

I don't have much shade on my patio, so I can't help you much there. I have the standard impatiens/fuchsia/bleeding heart/ coleus, etc.. in my one shady area.

As for more help, well, you need to decide what you want to grow (you might try googling plants for shade), and then come ask questions :-)

As for pictures for inspiration, well .... you asked for it! :-) Follow the link below, though I notice lots of the pics that were there last summer aren't available anymore. Still, it will give you some good ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Look what Jenny started :-)

daphne, i can't imagine living as far north as you...im looking to get to a climate warmer than atlanta...i would think that you can do wonderful creations with ferns, ivies, evergreens, impatiens for color and a water attraction (i.e. fountain) is always a welcome addition....think about flowing with your environment and elements, with just an occasional statement of defiance that for some reason just takes off an grows from the attention and care that you give it...good luck !

Thanks for the tour Meg. I did want water Tommie, looked and and actually bought a wall fountain, then took it back last spring. It was such a brute I was afraid it would pull the wall down. I will look into different kinds of water. Good idea about the googling shade plants. Thanks for your ideas.

Bitten by the spring fever? More like half eaten by now! I've helped keep a personal sense of spring alive this past couple weeks by repotting some orchids, and last weekend I finally repotted most of a spring plant order (osmanthus, lespedeza and a winter honeysuckle) that had been sitting inside shrink-wrapped in plastic and looking pretty sad.

Now I'm just waiting until the city farmer's market's start filling up with herb plants and seedling flats, and it's time to fill up the boxes again!

And then at some point when it gets up to the 60s during the day (probably sometime in August at this rate), I'll bring out the brugmansia cuttings and the family will actually be able to walk around the house again.

Ahhhh, spring!

Jim

daphne, found a teriffic fountain at "big lots" for $25; my deck has a number of "whimsical" touches to keep it fun, and this fountain is certainly one of them; stands about 24" high, kinda looks like plaster-of-paris, and is a woman at a well pump and of course the water flows into a small pail, and then into a small area shaped like a pond. By adding some smooth stones into the bucket, I am able to manipulate the sound of the water, to make it louder or softer. I've surrounded it with containers of ferns, some bamboo, and a small palm. I've layered everything to build up the height. Sounds and looks great.

Ah, Jim, you too can't wait for the green market at Union Square? :-) It's all I can do to keep myself from going down to take a peek.

Speaking of windowboxes/boxes, I have a question. Last summer I decided it was really time for me to think in terms of perennials, instead of just splurging on annuals all the time. But now that it's almost time for preparation of the soil, I'm looking at the boxes I put some perennials in and wondering what to do. I am accustomed to thoroughly cultivating my boxes, taking off the top 1/3 and adding compost, manure, and other amendments. But I can't do that without disturbing the perennials I can't even see yet. So do y'all limit your boxes to annuals, and do perennials in their own individual containers?

All you people are lucky! Nature determines what I can do, living in zone 2. Perrenials will not survive the winter in pots here, but we have to wait til June to plant annuals out in pots.Even then we might have to take them in and out at night,weather-depending.So, my reasons are different than yours, but this is what I do.
I have large containers(24 inches diameter) that I put large pots inside, that have perrenials in them.The weight of these is such that I can't haul them in and out of the house with ease but I like to see 'green' earlier than June!In the fall when my veggie garden is through I take the inner pots out and plant them in the veggie garden til spring thaw, pull them out and put them on the deck in the big pots.
In these pots I don't concentrate on flowering perrenials(cause perrennials don't flower long),rather I have great foliage colors,leaf shapes etc. If I find a bare-spot in the pot, which happens from time to time, or just want a change I pop in any annuals that tickle my fancy at the time.
Annuals are all in pots small enough to move, as we can get a frost in mid-summer.Some of the trailing plant material even in annual baskets that you buy is perrennial, so don't hesitate to add something from your garden if the planter isn't full enough.
Guess what I'm saying is'there are no rules, only preferences'.Use annuals for flowers,use perrenials for other reasons.I'm sure if you GENTLY feel around in the planter you will be able to feel which plants are alive and which are not(the dead ones will be looser, the live ones will have a root ball that is distinctively stuck in the soil)

Tommie, wish we had a Big Lots here in Canada. I will have to check the next time I am down stateside. Sounds great! Good price too!

Meg and Jim, I visited NYC last May for the first time since 1972. I grew up in Cranford, NJ and used to visit the city with my family as a kid. I went in '72 as a young adult and was scared to death. I was SO glad that my fella took me down to Manhattan last May. I fell truly in love with the city. Would go back in a heartbeat. Spend four wonderful days there. You are lucky to have made this city your home.

Hi daphnel, I'm pretty new to this, too. Have done houseplants and a small window box, not real successfully, just so you don't feel like the only newbie!

Thanks for the pix, Meg -- you've reminded me I have to find somewhere to put in some astilbe. Maybe downstairs at the building's entryway...

In a 4x4-ft. space (counting the overhang from my railing) i'm planning far too many plants, probably. It's also half-sun, half-shade, as it's a southern exposure with the bottom half of the balcony walled in.

I have one shade plant -- a small pot of coleus from the seeds my upstairs neighbor's plants dropped in my window boxes last year.

Sort of at a loss as to what to plant at all my other plants' feet -- I find a lot of bulb plants that are supposed to be good for shade, but I don't want to have to overwinter more than a few pots, which are already spoken for, for the most part.

Anybody know what i can expect, colorwise, from kentucky pole bean blossoms? It's going to be huge, I'm sure, but every other seed packet I found was for bush beans...

Thanks!
Dee

LOL not only have I been bit by the "spring" bug, I got bit by the "gardening" bug.

A few threads down, you can see pictures of my porch about a month or so ago. *nothing* on it!

Now I have a lilac bush (it did look like 3 twigs sticking out of the ground, but is now sprouting leaves), a rose bush (the first leaves finally showed up yesterday! yay!), a lavender bush, strawberry plants that belong to my 9 year old son (just recently got their first 2 flowers, and boy is he excited!), tulips, dafodils, and hyacynth all in flower, and a chocolate mint plant.

I planted some of my gladolia bulbs weekend before last. (I need to remember to plant more this weekend!) I also have several cherry tomato and bell pepper seedlings inside. Thy are all growing nicely and should be ready to put outside in a few weeks.

My husband and grandmother think I'm crazy lol :) Although, even though my husband thinks I'm crazy, he's glad I'm doing this. He says I seem a lot happier, and that I seem to be sleeping better. *shrug* Therapy through gardening?

Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures this weekend.

Sounds wonderful, Marie!

My spring fever was 'cured' by the snow/sleet storm that hit us yesterday with wind chill of sub 32 :-(

Gee Marie, you are so lucky. We still have snow on the ground, hoping it will be all gone in a couple of weeks. The maple syrup is in full run up here now. Still a while to go before lilacs....

Hi Everyone,
I have contracted spring fever too! Started balcony gardening last year, some of you helped me out to find my hardiness zone and then I never posted again (too busy gardening, lol). It was marvellous. THis year, climbers and trailers are the intended theme.

I feel with you Daphnel, we have enough snow left in Ottawa, too. I have overwintered bulbs in the fridge, and now daffodils and tulips are blooming indoors.
Have a colourful spring, dear fellow green thumbs!

Hi there, another new balcony gardner here. I've got the bug big time, I have seedlings all over my kitchen and have been winter sowing for the past few weeks, containers and milk jugs all over my porch. Funny, if all these seeds make it, I'm not sure where I'll put them all! My deck isn't that big but I have hooks for hanging plants and intend on having morning glory's, moonflowers and Hyacinth Bean just amoung a couple of things. Also sowing are Four O'Clocks, impatiens for the area of shade I have, petunias and phlox, I also have tomatoes and sugar snap peas.

I'm having a ball, looking for places to buy cheap containers to plant some of these seedlings, once they're up, any suggestions?

Happy Spring!

Linda if you are talking about temporary homes until they are big enough to go outside, some large plastic cups work nicely. If you are talking about to go in outside, I would suggest looking at places like the Dollar store (If you have a Dollar tree near you, definately look there! mine has some nice planters right now) and also take a look at Big Lots.

Linda, I like to shop at Salvation Army and Good Will for baskets, containers, and pots... almost anything will do (and they frequently have an abundance of pots, if they're ugly I paint 'em). With baskets I line them with plastic bags and then just fill with potting soil. The only potential problem is drainage, so make sure not to overwater!

Besides rain and wind, there's quite a bit going on ....

My last year's weigela and lilac are budding out; the baby forsythia and daphne survived the winter; two of three clematis are putting on the green (the third year jackmanii is growing like mad). The pot of scallions is putting on new growth; the one lone daylily fan is doing OK - hope the birds leave it alone this year.

I've got a lot of seed sprouting and expect to see many more sprouts in the coming days. Indoors, the brug and fig have been leafing out for a while; I expect they will lose all that when I finally get them outside, but they are alive!

And best of all, after three years of trying, I have got tulips and daffodils coming up!!!

Still have other stuff that I'll have to wait and see if they have survived the winter (hardy hibiscus, callicarpa, etc.), but all in all, I am one happy camper!

PV

And best of all

Hey PV et all! Good to see folks thawing out. PV - congrats on the bulbs! I planted mine real late (like December/January), so I haven't seen hide nor hair)... It has taken me awhile to thaw and now I have to go into crazy planting mode due to all the recent PJICs - including yesterday's load! LOL

Since I had my very first hummingbird visit last August, I have gone into full hummer overdrive with respect to plants I wanted to grow this year. This means having to do some rearranging out there to fit it all... But then that has always been par for the course for balcony gardeners. LOL

Anyway, am back in the gardening mode. My lilacs' buds have swollen open and should start to leaf out in the next week or so amazingly enough (and I hope we have no more frosts because it's a nuisance covering the buds when they do that), I have LOVs, asiatic lilies, tiger lily babies, daylilies, peonies, and my hosta all peeping up. One honeysuckle is leafing out nicely and the blueberry buds are swelling. A new little pussy willow that I planted last year is opening up its catkins. The figs look like they are still alive (have to repot both) and I'll have to see how the evergreens fared with their burlap screen and Wilt Pruf (all but the leucothoe, which is older, look pretty ragged). The 2 weigelas are still asleep, although both definitely have buds. The dappled willow, I cut all the way back at the end of February (when I cut back my clematis) and that is still asleep, as is my beautyberry and my pee gee hydrangea. The ferns and dicentra are still asleep too (hope the dicentra didn't get rotted or something, as it should be waking up around now IIRC).

Still.. I'm glad to see the sun!

Glad to see everyone!

First time this year it actually feels like spring. I wish I could be out on my balcony and not at work.

I spent the last couple weekends clearing out about 1/2 of the old dirt from my containers and adding fresh, and getting rid of my deck detris. So now I have nice pots all filled with soil. My perennials - daylilies, shasta daisy and clematis, show signs of life. My fig I brought in before the winter got too cold Months ago, and never put it back, so of course it is all leafed out with figs on it.

Got some cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes (some italian sort), and eggplant seedlings started inside.

Otherwise, I'm going to do the stuff that worked for me last year - zinnia, cosmos, sunflowers (which were a huge hit with guests to my balcony - don't see that everyday in NYC), morning glories and moonflowers. And of course leave a couple pots open for things that jump into my cart on any expeditions to the nurseries.

Oooh, I'm jealous of you organized people! Between hubby being in hosp for 2 weeks and pretty sick, and focusing what time I had on winter sowing (which I was late starting), my patio/balcony/roof garden/whatever the heck it is ... is a mess :-( Pots and window boxes are still full of dead stuff, and pots are still wrapped in foam and bubble wrap.

BUT ... I have sprouts from some of my winter sowing (which I only started on 3/13)! I'm pretty excited about that, because I kind of doubted that I would be successful with that, but it WORKS :-) Good thing, too, because I haven't started my indoor sowing yet.

My forsythia is starting to POP. Tulips are pushing up, but the daffs and crocuses seem to have poked up a tiny head and not liked something, cause they are just sitting there.

Can't wait to put out the many coleus cuttings I took, cause I need a COLOR fix :-)

Yes,

Spring has sprung in Brooklyn; I'm on my own personal Magnolia Watch -- as soon as the buds start opening on the neighborhood trees, it's off to the Botanic Garden for a serious flower fix.

Pretty much everything survived this winter; though I've hardly got any flowers on my quince this year (I plan on bonsai-ing it anyway), the honeysuckle's leafing out, the buds are fattening on the fothergilla -- one of my favorite spring shrubs -- and I need to get another blueberry before mine flowers if I hope for more than one or two berries this year.

Budget constraints (read: overspending on orchids) will keep me mostly doing seeds this year: nasturtiums, night phlox, moonflowers, cardinal flowers, etc.

The big show will be the brug cuttings I got last fall, which are all sitting outside ready to sprout up. Can't wait for the blossoms . . .

Jim

You have brugs outside already?

Whenever it's over 60 during the day, they go outside, and back again at night -- They need to get their stems and leaves used to outside conditions before they go out full time. Right now they're in fairly loose mix, so I have to be careful to not damage the roots with wind rocking, but I plan on repotting 'em this weekend anyway.

Jim

Thanks for that info. I have one brug that did VERY badly indoors this winter(it was a rooted cutting that I got from eBay late summer)... I let the spider mites get out of control and the plant really suffered. I have managed to resurrect it, and tho it's small now, it looks healthy. But I have it in a small pot. I will do the out/in thing as you suggested, but I am wondering ... I know it will need to be in a larger pot. Is now a good time, even tho it's just resurrected? Should I repot it before it goes outside full time?

I would repot now, and give it a few days to get the roots settled. Then bring it outside, but don't give it full sun right away -- those new leaves aren't used to strong light. After a week, give it as much sun as you possibly can, make sure it stays moist, step back and watch it take off.

Brugs are tougher than we think -- the hardest part is probably keeping small plants with small, young roots alive during the winter.

Jim

Thanks, Jim; I'll do that. Looking at the weather forecast ... 5 days of mostly sun ... I am jazzed :-)

PVick - I just finished looking at you balconey garden, your flowers are beautiful! You give me new hope that I can find room on my 2nd floor porch deck for most of what I have sown this year, although I believe my deck is smaller than your balcony. I'm so looking forward to starting my balcony garden this year. Thanks for the inspiration!

Can somebody tell me what Brugs are? Sounds interesting and my curiosity is peaked!

Linda - Brugs are Brugmansias, which are woody perennials, hardy only in frost-free zones, where they can reach heights of 20 feet plus. They bear large, long, usually downward facing, trumpet-shaped blooms - hence the nickname "Angel's Trumpets".

We've a member here, Gordon, who grows beautiful brugs in pots on his rooftop garden. Gorgeous, gorgeous!

If you want to see what one looks like, I grew one last year from a 6" cutting, and it actually flowered! Right now, it's sitting in my living room, beginning to leaf out. Have to start acclimating it to the outside soon ........

Here it it last year - it got to be about 3½ feet tall:

{{gwi:580}}

and here's a closeup of the flower:
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Gordon's are waaaaaaaaay nicer!

There's also a brugmansia forum here at GW you can check out ....

PV