How I did it: My mother has kept the best garden in our development for as long as I can remember. When I bought my first home, Mom provided me with bulbs and seedlings to landscape our property; those plants always held a special place in my heart. So much that when I left the house, I dug up all of the plants and gave them to dear friends, so they would prosper under proper care and I knew they would be well looked after.
After moving overseas for my husband's job, we spent year after year in unit blocks with a few pot plants, but our new townhouse is the first place where we have had a bit of of green. I had to be a bit creative, due to bylaws and lease agreements, but I removed the existing landscaping which was already dying (shady plants in full sun = numbnuts landscaper!) and placed the salvagable plants into pots.

The fence to our back garden has slats and I wanted a bit more privacy, so I planted canna and helicona plants along the perimeter. I splurged on the cannas, being a bit of a snob, because of what I learned from my mother. The bulbs on Ebay ran me about $10.00 a plant, but it was well worht it. The "filler" cannas I bought a the local garden center were only white and I absolutely plan on getting rid of them, once my beautiful cannas propegate. A few creeping frangipini (plumeria) plants to cover in the holes in the fence and we should have the coverage we are hoping for.


The front garden was well landscaped with indiginous plants that are almost fully grown. I don't love them, but I can live with them.

I wanted to grow vegetables, but I didn't have the patience to turn over the soil in the back garden and they would not provide the coverage we desired, so I bought a few large pots and a few sytrofoam coolers (with holes drilled in the bottom) and filled them up with winter vegetables: strawberries, broccoli, brussel sprouts, lettuce, carrots, etc.

Fingers crossed.

Lessons & tips: Don't go for the cheap potting soil. It contains a lot of wood chips/product. It will attract bugs way before the wood decomposes; it also does not hold water in the way new plantings need.

Resources: Ebay, my Mom.

Feb 05, 2009, 09:05PM PST | 1 comment | 4 cheers