One of my absolute favourite things to do is spend time in my garden. I’m pretty sure I inherited this from my mom who is the person i always turn to for garden advice.
Every day I am out there deadheading, watering, spritzing and rearranging. The garden is always changing and evolving. I love to explore the plants. Every day offers new puts, growth and tasks that need to be done. It’s also great exercise. I day spent repotting and pruning leaves me sore and satisfied.
As I live in an upstairs duplex my garden is all planted in containers. It is truly amazing what you can do in containers. I also have a garden that gets a lot of sunshine during the day. This means things get very hot and dry. Because of this, we have tailored all the plants to suit those conditions. I have a lot of drought tolerant plants and succulents (which I love) and I have a few pots dedicated to seasonal colour which gets changed up when needed.
When you approach my garden from the sliding doors the first thing you notice is the ‘grass’. We bought some Astroturf to give the illusion of having a real garden. This is the most fabulous stuff. I feel like I have a small lawn with none of the hassle of having to water and feed it! It also helps cut down on heat and glare that was a problem as the patio is tiled with white tiles.
On the immediate left, I have a gardenia in a large pot with petunias planted around the base. The gardenia is a new acquisition and the petunias are for seasonal colour. In this corner, I also have my geranium family – a rose geranium, traditional geranium with hot pink flowers and some cuttings. I also have my Dick’s Pink Succulent and some succulent cuttings I’m propagating and a small daisy bush.
In the middle of the wall, you will see my garden shelf. This has three shelves and on each shelf is a large dish container with succulents and apple bromeliads. I also have a large Black Prince Echeveria.
Next to that I have a large pot with a small plant. This is my snail vine and it’s a baby. It grows quickly though and I’m hoping that by providing it with a large pot from the start we will start to see lots of growth. This makes the most incredible corkscrew shaped flowers!
In the corner, I have a vertical planter filled with hen and chicks (spider plant) both with a variegated and non-variegated leaf. There are also succulents in the top of the planted and a large succulent garden in a dish beside it.
All along the balcony wall, I have rectangular planters with grass. This is pet grass for my cars who love to come out here and nibble at it. I need a lot of it because they are like sheep and eat it so quickly!
In the far corner, I have seasonal colour pots filled with pansies and calendula and a very large firesticks succulent. This is the most incredible plant. It is so striking and is one of my favourites.
Then you will find another vertical planter. This one is filled with wild garlic with a variegated leaf and bulbine. I have two varieties in here. They flower at different times, which means I get twice the show.
Next to that is my Crown of Thorns. I got this plant as a wedding gift and it has been in flower for the past four years! It has also grown so big. This year I planted a whole lot of zebra Haworthia around the bottom. It has become such a beautiful arrangement.
In the corner is my lemon tree. This is also new and like the gardenia on the other side, it has petunia planted around the base. This provides a beautiful balance to the garden. This arrangement also has a large pot filled with dwarf agapanthus and pansies (aggies like to be crowded), a ponytail palm, another seasonal colour pot with calendula and petunia in it, an old-fashioned begonia cutting and an unidentified succulent.
Finally, along the sliding door, you will find my Kalanchoe family. I have a variety of colours here. They show they give when they flower is incredible! I also have another daisy bush.
The garden is completed by my bistro set and a small pot in which we have planted cactus seeds. I am waiting to see if they will germinate.
Adventures in Momming 