apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'm obsessed with cute succulents in pots of muted colours. I like them small but they grow a little out of control. Any advice on how to stunt their growth??

The small veggie garden is doing well- lotsa lettuce and radishes already. Just finished digging the herb garden and still need to amend the soil for it and the perennial bed! In other areas we are smothering vast areas with black plastic for a few years (millenia?!) to try and kill the oxalis, sigh.

How are you all doing with the upcoming water rations?

I wish I could say I have summer gardening plans this year. But, I have a bad back (I am a total DIY-er), and a limited budget this year. Also, my backyard and front yard are messes - a total hate crime - that will require demolition of two brick patios sloping in the wrong direction (like, toward the house). It makes sense for me to save money, wait next year, and tackle it full on next Spring.

Even though the interior of my house is blatantly mid-century modern, I would like something more organic outside and environmentally responsible. Also, I would like to incorporate edible gardening.

I just need to save save save!

jenny!, don't water them as much. Cacti grow very slowly, so you might consider combining some with your succulents.

As for our garden plans, we've already pruned the citrus trees which look so much better and healthier. The additional air circulation is good for preventing disease and has attracted more birds.

Rather than buying a $2 bunch of basil at the market, I bought a $2.99 potted basil plant at Trader Joes. I'm thinking of planting one or two more in our raised beds so that we can enjoy lots of tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil salads throughout the summer. Yum!

No garden to speak of, but in the dirt pit of our apartment's carport...I'm growing squash (cuz they're so easy and abundant) to eat and California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) for colors.

I've got over 200 sqft of garden this year. It has all sprouted and I've been blogging the progress with a friend. It's our first garden and we're so excited!

We're going to have so much spinach, we wont' have to worry about green veggies all year! I'm so excited!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/marmarsupial/

I spend so much money on cut flowers every week - so this year I filled every remaining shady spot in my back beds with different varieties of hydrangeas. I had no idea I could grow hydrangeas until a couple of years ago and I love them. They are idiot proof. In the winter they die back and look all rangy and woody and then in the spring a miraculous transformation occurs. They remind me of my grandmother's house when I was growing up.

I also ordered a gorgous succulent wreath from a vendor featured on Martha Stewart Living. I can't wait for it to fill out - it is hanging on the back fence.

Hadn't thought of doing a succulant planter. I wonder how they would do over the winter in Illinois? Maybe if I put it in the garage over winter?

My garden is going great - and I'm waaaaaaaaay up here in Canada. My perennials all came back, except the lavender, and the holes have been filled in with new additions. The clematis that went in last year, and was cut back to the ground this spring, is already 6' tall! Must have been that dead pigeon I buried underneat it. Yes, really.

I just have a mismash of things to brighten up my patio.

http://flickr.com/photos/starjewel/2501402154/
http://flickr.com/photos/starjewel/2501405236/

The little dwarf meyer is growing some baby lemons there in the back, but sadly, my strawberries you see on the ground in bags didn't make it (thanks to Fedex taking 8 days to ship a 2 day package from parkseed.com.) There's also a variety of herbs in the strawberry pot, and mint in the pot to its left. Lavender is in front of the lemon tree.

There's celosia on the left, a pot with festival grass, coleus, and moneywort, and another pot with New Zealand flax and persicaria. The flowerbox is coleus, impatiens and New Guinea impatiens.

What you can't see in that photo is my succulents by the door: http://flickr.com/photos/starjewel/2500578943/

I'm wishing I'd planted some lettuce, I wonder if it's too late to do that.

I've got a whole veggie garden going. Squash, melons, eggplant, herbs, tomatoes (365,000), pole beans, hot peppers, bell peppers, and more thiings that aren't springing to mind. Plus I plan to make my front and back yards pretty, as right now they're pretty boring. Not bad for a 15 year old I'd say.

after an unsuccessful attempt at digging up the backyard here in my new apartment, i've resigned myself to the idea of container gardening. lots of veggies, flowers in the front yard, some herbs in the porch, and i've got a compost started. i'm kind of creeped out by it though...haha

Letting plants (including my lawn) that don't thrive in Denver's arid climate die, and replace them with xeriscape. Also, I'm veggie gardening on my deck.

@ChzPlz: Rock on sister. I just shoved a leftover fish head under my freshly planted rose. I'm in NYC growing poppies, morning glories, mexican hyssop, , sweet peas, phlox, sweet william, moonflowers, butterfly bushes.. starting on my first year of clematis and roses - anything at all as long as its flowers flowers flowers. Last year I grew a tomato. One. And a rat ate it. And I grew some basil. Until I bought six times as much at the farmers market for a dollar and pureed it and froze it for use all year. OK I have one tomato plant. And supercute- if you just plant a cherry tomato or a blueberry or place an old lettuce head into the ground, they'll GROW, they really will. You can get effortless baby lettuce, just make sure it doesn't get too much sun, or it gets all bitter....

Out here in Berkeley my passion vines are going mad - hopefully they will soon cover my hideous (rental) porch railings. The lavender and rosemary are also doing well and I am waiting for my one dahlia to bloom. The wild parrots came to visit yesterday and were hanging off the side of the house on the vent grate! I think they're feasting on the Japanese plums just starting to get ripe. Happy gardening everyone!

Mmepatty: Post some pics! Passion vines? Wild parrots?

I have a great shade garden going and a few mints. apple mint, peppermint, cat mint ( cat nip variation) Some bleeding hearts, impatients and astible. A wild rose popped up that blooms.

Anyone who wants to save up and get a good deal on plants. Go to a good nursery and look at the plants that have finished blooming, and in the fall they want to sell any left overs instead of overwintering them. Even though some articles will say not to buy plants that have roots sticking out of the bottom of the pot, it can tell you if it is worth buying a $2 Hosta. If the leaves have been broken off, but it has great roots, plant it and it will come up next spring like nothing ever happened. Be sure to stick the tag next to it, so you can find it in early spring. I stick them behind the plant so you can see it early in the year, but not see it once the plant comes up.

These tricks work with most plants, but some do not have huge roots. Clematis, I am still working on. Sun plants I have a hard time ignoring the way I should. Tickseed and black eyed susans, will leaf out if babied and not bloom. If you ignore them, they will bloom.

So much to learn!

I plan on trying to keep the iris and heather that I planted in my previous "dirt patch" alive! Florida summers can be brutal.

I just blogged my garden plans at Living Small. Unfortunately, I don't have enough space or light for vegetables, but I'm going to town with a potted cottage garden. Coleus, snapdragons, cosmos, even a few sunflowers. The works!