Ready for a new round of mish-mashellany? Me, too! Check out these balcony planters I saw in San Antonio last month:
I would’ve loved to have seen these more close-up, but they seem to be steel planter boxes (Mark the Welding Genius, are you checking this out?). They’re decked out with fairly bullet-proof plants like rosemary–which is funny, because I’ve always had a hard time growing rosemary in a container of any sort. Drainage, baby!
I love succulents–who doesn’t?–and the Better Homes and Gardens site has some great examples of succulent dish gardens. Dig out those old pedestal bowls or silver chafing dishes from your wedding that you never use, and put them to good use! Be careful of drainage, though–you can’t easily drill holes into pieces like these. When I do this, I just water extra-sparingly.
Update on raised beds at The Hunky Foreman’s house: Brett and housemate Jason planted all these greens (I didn’t help with this at all, other than to pull a few weeds). I should’ve told them to stagger the plantings so everything isn’t ready to harvest all at once, but isn’t this a beautiful bed of greens? The fencing around the bed is to deter deer–we never used to have a problem with deer in the backyard, but after last year’s drought (which we are still in, BTW), deer are a much more common sight as they forage for food.
DROUGHT UPDATE: Although we are still in a drought, the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) says that this summer should be better than last. That wouldn’t be a hard feat–last summer was like living in the depths of Hell, so nearly anything would be better. Predictions are for more rain this May and June–but don’t sit back on your laurels! Keep conserving water and make some plans to reduce your water usage in the garden. Two places to start? Reduce your lawn size and use more native plants.
And now I leave you with a favorite song of mine from Susan Tedeschi: “In the Garden”–
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Every one should have a cole crop bed shouldn’t they? When my wife was dealing with her back injury last year I was doing all the grocery shopping. When I saw how much lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower and the like was, I planted even more than I usually do.
By the way, tell them to get some bok choy or pak choy. It’s easy to grow is is very good in a salad.