A Patio Container Garden...an online photo tour

Dear garden buds,

I've been very lax at taking photos of my garden, but finally got a bee in my bonnet and did it. These are random photos taken here and there, willy-nilly. I love growing plants in containers, and try to add new ones every season. I'm really getting into combining plants now and love how the colors and leaf textures set each other off.

In the garden vignette photo above, I have a galvanized tub on an old bench discarded by a neighbor and hand-painted. In the tub, I'm growing sweet marjoram, dianthus and alyssum. The tub is surrounded by hand-painted birdhouses (one by my friend Sherry Gaffney), a galvanized saucer used as a birdbath, another birdbath and a hand-painted bucket planted with comfrey. Just to the right, you can see the edge of an old wooden barrel that serves as a pedestal for a potted bamboo.

I love my potted bamboo, a gift from my friend Fred, by way of south Austin. I planted some white dianthus at the base of it. What a gorgeous combo they make in the hand-painted lime green Mexican cement pot.



Lemon thyme and white alyssum live happily in an old Goodwill store find...a wooden chips/dip bowl painted blue with drainage holes drilled in the bottom.



The cactus (started as a few pads salvaged from the neighbor's trash) continues to thrive in the old antique iron pot I bought from a fellow at the side of the road.



A combo of a small cherry tomato, a purple dianthus, and two small pepper plants grow in the galvanized metal trough on my patio.



A small salad garden grows just steps outside our dining room/kitchen door.



Another new project this spring is my galvanized tub/trellis project. Two tubs, drilled in the bottom for drainage, filled with great Gardenville potting soil and planted with Scarlet Runner Beans (on the left) and sweet peas (on the right). They've all sprouted, and started their journey up the trellis. I love the purple gazing ball in between. A small cuphook screwed into the side of the house helps keep the trellis from flapping about.



Most of these containers can be enjoyed from the living room and dining room windows inside the house, something I plan carefully each season.

Hope you've enjoyed this little tour of my container garden! (And notice how I've combined herbs, veggies and flowers!)

Happy trails from Texas,

bobbi c.

Garden photos!

Finally got a chance to post more garden photos. If you scroll back to the BEFORE pics, you can see what a difference just a few short years can make in a small town garden. Amazing, isn't it?

First is our sweet little apricot tree outside the back door, painted purple, of course.



Then there's my sweet little chicken planter that I've had for years underneath our one oak tree. I need to fill it with some hens 'n chicks (ha). That bushy dark green plant you see is a volunteer chili pequin that the birds so kindly planted for me, right where I wanted it. And of course there are the dianthus (my grandmother used to call them "pinks") which everybody told me I couldn't grow here.

Oddly enough, I was just flipping through one of my favorite antique garden books, The Amateur's Flower Garden by Mr. Shirley Hibberd (published in Great Britain in 1871), and found this quote: "The truth is quite otherwise, as many a cottager who has blundered into floriculture without knowing anything of properties and exhibitions could attest by the bonny pinks and carnations in his little garden." Take THAT, stupid garden person at Big Box Store!



A fiberglass planter I painted blue holds Gregg's Blue Mist flower, a metal obelisk thingy and is planted underneath with yard long beans. A variety of salivas and other natives grow along the fence, and a honeysuckle that starts on the neighbor's side and drapes over the fence. It's invasive, but makes a great home for lots of birds. The tree you can see is a dwarf Japanese plum that has ONE plum on it this year. It's still young yet, though. An old blue wine bottle gives off a spark of gorgeous color in the middle of the planter.



And since these old cedar fences turn black and grungy and moldy over time, I decided to do a little "colorwash" on mine. This is the double gate leading to the backyard garden. I'm using "dump paint" from Lowe's, marked-down paint that they've miss mixed for whatever reason. Lately I've found a lot of the VOC-free stuff there. I put a little in an old yogurt container, mix in a little water, then slop it on! So far, it's three different colors, but I love it that way! The plants really look beautiful against it. I have a long way to go, but it's great therapy and I love the effect.



More to come...

Dig it!

bobbi c.