Need Help with a cement backyard

20 years ago

I just moved into a house and the backyard is all cement. There's a pool and a deck that take over most of the yard but I have about 25' X 15' between the house and the pool that is just gray cement. My son is thrilled he doesn't have to mow but I'm desperate to make it look beautiful. I've just planted about a dozen pots (3) w/daylillies, three pots of hydrangeas, (1) geranium and some annuals. It still looks bare. I'm not finished by no means and it's still early in NJ to start planing annuals but I need something BIG. I was thinking of maybe ornamental grasses? or a evergreen? I'm strickly growing in containers and would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks

Karen

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Comments (4)

suzi7
20 years ago
seems like it's a big space. you might need alot of big pots with big plants to fill it up.. grasses and evergreens sounds all great. some idea that i have is since it's near the pool, you can do like hardy banana, elephant ears, cannas.... something trophical will grow huge. fun. of course i've seen them done in containers, one thing that i really like also is number of agapanthus in a large pot- so classic, always looks great. number of tall lilies in a big pot, also those lime color sweet potato vines grow so big, also and give just lush in mass. you are right. with 25 feet you'll need to go big even if you are only designing 1 or 2 corners.
hoku1
20 years ago
I just visited a house yesterday that had a large brick patio in the back. She had used a variety of potted plants to decorate the area, and it looked really nice. She had several clusters of 3 different sized pots. There were some large plants, as has been suggested. In addition, she had used several pots of red geraniums, which made it all look very colorful and unified. Some of the pots were blue glazed, and some of them were natural. All pots in a cluster were the same color. Hope this helps.
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sedum37
20 years ago
You may want to take a look at Gardens to Go : Creating and Designing a Container Garden (Hardcover)
by Sydney Eddison, Steve Silk. It has a lot of ideas for containers for patios. The photos are stunning and the plants are listed. The book is pricey though so get it at your library or perhaps you have a library consortium you can borrow from a neighboring library.
staplek
Original Author
20 years ago
Thank you all so much. I guess I'll try and hit some garage sales to pick up some planters. This year will be my biggest investment I guess. Love the idea of the blue pots and red geraniums. If I can't find blue planters I may just spray paint what I have. and I'll have to look up agapanthus and see if I can get that around here. I ordered some perenials from freetreesandplants.com and I'll start buying a little bit each week. Still have a month before the annuals are out in NJ. I'll be heading for the library this weekend too!
Thanks again,
Karen