This is my patio, now about a year after the great tile installation project. It's changed slightly.
These are my woolly pockets. I loves them and the company that makes them. Buy American recycled products that help build low cost vertical gardens for public schools? Don't mind if I do! My Boston fern (labeled as a "Chino Fern" at the grocery, because that was where the nursery was from, so perhaps it's actually now a K-Town fern) seems really happy with the move. The other guys are newbies from Home Despot, and I'm hoping they'll like it here- as long as they like being ignored, they'll love me!
This is the cat's observation corner. If you sit on her stool you will get cat hair on your butt. Some more of my ferns- in the corner is my maidenhair- its a year old now and it's just gone nuts- it wasn't more than 7 or 8 inches tall with 5 or so fronds when I bought it. The nearer fern is a "autumn" fern from the botanical garden plant sale.
My nasturtium has been pretty happy this year- I moved it to a more draining pot and into the "sunny" part of the patio, and it rewarded me with flowers. It's a little droopy here because I watered after photos, but it's still real neat to see it. I am interested in seeing if it will keep thinking it's a perennial and overwinter again this year. I've seen some really large nasturtiums in my neighborhood and even up in SF that make me think it could.
This is my worm composter. It's not full yet, but it's only been about 9 months or so since I started keeping the worms. I do harvest digestion juice from the tap at the base and that stuff makes the houseplants very happy, so I can't wait to mix all the castings into everything. Until then I'm just going to enjoy the pleasures of watching all my shredded mail being eaten by worms. Take that credit card offers! I refuse to participate in your capitalist mill of debt, go feed my worms!
This is the corner opposite the worm composter. More ferns of course- in the green thing is a birdsnest fern from Ikea and a mother in law tongue, and some dying moss. Above it is a...something fern...silver leaf? Japanese?...something and some english ivy (also once a teeny houseplant from my grocery store- which subdivided and thrived enough to be two separate trellises- the other is under the nasturtium).
Full length shot, showing off all my ferns AND the ikea furniture. Those sticks came from Josh and Heather who sometimes give me shout outs on their blog. Thanks for the sticks guys, they have come in handy! That's the trellis my clematis who I'm really hoping will decide to live ,is on, and I used jute, as a certain person suggested on a certain site, (you know who you are if you make it over here- so thanks for the idea!). Clem had a rough transition to that pot, namely because it lunged out of the pot during transfer and crunched a few major stems, but after cutting back a lot of dead portions I am encouraged by several of the new shoots and the overall healthy appearance of most of the leaves. Knock on wood.
Also visible on the table is my jug "terrarium" with polka dot plants busting out of it. This has proved to be a very successful garden strategy for the neglectful waterer I am. In fact almost none of my plant pots have drainage holes, for this very reason. The funnels are for subirrigation chambers in all the pots.
I still have another woolly pocket and a window box to install and some plans for tea light wall scones and perhaps an expensive but awesome chair swing, but overall, the patio is pretty sweet to sit on now. Can't wait till things sunny up in a few weeks.
