When we got married and had our own place I had dreams of making my backyard look like this...
Our first summer in the house I decided I would start with a small flower garden on the side of the house. Little did I know that it would be way more work than I bargained for. Just creating the garden was back-breaking. Digging up the dirt, placing the weed barrier, shoveling the dirt back on top, buying the plants, digging holes for the plants, and on and on and on...Plus, I wanted to be environmentally friendly. So instead of laying down non-biodegradable weed paper, I used newspaper. BAD IDEA! I had weeds just two weeks after I planted. And I didn't have a lot of time to weed the garden so it basically turned into a jungle.
I also tried growing some hanging plants. My mother-in-law gave us some ferns. I killed those. My impatiens were the only thing to survive my garden so I replanted those into hanging baskets. They lasted a month or two but eventually died also.
This summer I officially gave up on my garden. Actually, I didn't really have a choice after the hubby mowed over my overgrown plot.
Nevertheless, I decided to stick with my hanging baskets (I didn't want to be a total quitter). But this time, I checked out a gardening book from my grandmother's very extensive library collection. I searched and searched for a hearty plant ideal for hanging baskets that didn't require much sunlight or water. What did I find?...Portulaca (aka moss roses). Oh my precious portulaca. They have done amazingly well. I have both light pink and yellow and also a very bright pink color. They open up in the early morning and begin to close-up as the day goes on. Their colors are so vibrant and the vines grow like wildfire. And I only water them every two to three days. They do require some pruning, and I try to do this about once a week.
They have done so well this summer that I'm actually going to move them indoors for the winter (I never had this problem before because all my plants died before the summer was over). I just hope they survive indoors. Keep your fingers crossed.
p.s. I have also managed to keep my camelia plant alive (wedding gift from Ms. L-thanks!), but only after some much needed TLC because apparently I wasn't giving it enough water. And I have managed to keep an aloe vera plant. I don't exactly know what those brown spots are, but I just told the hubby that they are freckles from all the sunlight. Hey, it keeps growing :)
