It's finally starting to cool off here in Dallas (only in the 80s!), and I sat out on my back porch for the first time in a couple months this weekend. The candles I'd left out had melted into blobs and the paint on my brand new chair had bubbled in the western exposure.

What kind of flowers are those in the flower box of the first picture, the pink ones?

pink flowers are geraniums

I find the 5th picture particularly inspiring simply because of the amount of shade. My patio gets nearly no sun, but it needs so much greenery! My apartment is only a few hours' train ride from the Tiny Tokyo Garden; the difference is that I can't read the plant labels. There are a lot of plants I've never seen before in this country; it's nice to see shade plants for which I can look at the garden shops.

These are huge compared to my sliver of a balcony.

thanks!

What is the green mesh screen material in picture #4? Any ideas where to purchase it? Very cool!

Any ideas what kind of flooring that is in picture 4?

For all of you with a small balcony, you really need to check out thebalconybar.com It really turns a small balcony or terrace into a very usable area. All of a sudden 6 of us can injoy our magnificant view!

amazing what one can do with little space. I have 2 raised beds on my small deck, which shrinks the space, but yields awesome growing goodies...
http://www.altglobe.com/blog/adding-raised-garden-bed-my-garden

Just love these balconies, especially the third picture. Thank you for posting them.