And even with the arrival of good weather, the thistles weren’t happy growing in pots-something I should have recognized by the fact that High Country Gardens didn’t list “good for containers” among their attributes. The Artemisia sage barely scraped by, and the same for the pair of blue globe thistles (aka echinops). The casualty list included two lavenders, a Russian sage, and a blue fescue. They were all appropriate to my conditions and location, but I asked too much when I tried keeping them on the balcony all winter as little more than seedlings. One fall I spent $100 or so on a bunch of perennials. Two, I need to get better about planning. An all-perennial garden would be a static exhibit adding annuals to the mix means I can have an ever-changing garden canvas, framed by my stalwart survivors.Ĭoleus, dracaena, sedums, sweet potato, and basil provide a wealth of color. They go in fast, tend to be energetic growers and vigorous recoverers, and when they’re done flowering-or when they die with the return of winter-they come out fast, too, ready to be replaced by something else. But I now recognize that annuals like the ones Zack gave me have values all their own. One, I had previously paid attention only to hardy perennials-plants that can overwinter and return to life year after year. (I later added a few more things, but these were the main event.) This helped me realize a couple of things: I spent a few hours getting them into various containers, kept them watered, and within weeks had the garden you see in the pictures. One afternoon he sent me home with some hardy leftovers from the plantings: five coleus, two sweet potato vines, and an angelonia. His company landscapes a lot of penthouse patios and corporate rooftop gardens-places akin to the balcony. Zack helped me fill out my garden with colorful additions. It smells as rich as a forest floor, drains like a dream, and the plants all seem to love it. In 2022 I used Valfei’s Potting Soil because it’s what they had at Verni’s, a standout local garden center.
#My little paintbrush professional#
I’ve found the professional stuff to be of higher and more-consistent quality, and it usually doesn’t come with added ingredients such as wetting agents and premixed fertilizer that you don’t need. I recommend using whatever brand of potting soil your local landscaping pros use and avoiding the stuff you usually find at big-box stores (it rhymes with Spiracle Glow).
Perlite also does the trick it’s cheaper and available at any garden store. Because most of my plants hate being even a little moist (“don’t like having wet feet” is a phrase you’ll run across in plant catalogs), I add a bunch of pumice pebbles to my soil to improve the drainage even more. Since pots trap water by their nature, using potting soil (instead of garden soil) provides better drainage. I hope the lessons I’ve learned help you grow a vibrant balcony or deck garden of your own-without the pain of a wasted season or three.
#My little paintbrush trial#
Much like a well-tended garden, the advice that follows looks neat and tidy but is actually the result of a lot of trial and error. It didn’t happen overnight-nor without setbacks-and I owe almost all my success to my friend Zack, a landscaper by trade and a green thumb since he was barely out of diapers.
#My little paintbrush cracked#
After a couple of summers of mixed results, I finally cracked the code in 2022. Then the pandemic hit, and like many people, I turned to gardening again. I didn’t plant anything else for a decade. Out of 14 plants, I got one sad pepper and a handful of flavorless grape tomatoes. In spring, I moved them outside, eyes always on the thermometer lest a late frost arrived.Īll summer I carefully watered and fed them, hand-pollinating the chili flowers each morning with a small paintbrush. That first winter, I nursed tomato and chili plants from seed under a grow lamp in the back room. We had lucked into a rare New York amenity: a proper big balcony, 7 by 20 feet and all to ourselves. When my wife Lindsay and I bought our Queens apartment in 2011, I couldn’t wait to start gardening.
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