WHAT I DID FOR THE BACK PORCH

As if I did not have enough to do, I decided to do some extensive changing to the back porch area.  I was not satisfied with  the plants I had back there, and got myself into a real project of improving over what I had.  You will see what I mean below, as I took on the project of building plant stand benches.  That was another task that I thought would take a couple of days that turned into a couple of weeks.

This is about what it looked like.  The first thing I did was paint the area.  If you would like to see what that project was like, then CLICK HERE I also built a large table out of red wood.	It seemed to me that more plants needed to be along the edge between the posts.  I did not want them all being floor level, so then I decided to build some plant stands so they would all be up high enough for me to see.

Now it is time to start planting pots.  What a project that turned out to be.  It took nearly 50 pots to do what I wanted to do.  Remember now, I am also planting in the front gardens, and that has been in the hundreds of individual plants.  Needless to say, I got quite tired of planting.  Every pot had to have the right soil mixture for proper growth.		It is all beginning to take shape.	Most of the pots are now planted, and the growth begins.

Just a few more pictures to show the growth progress.

A few close ups of individual pots.

				You might notice the picture below of this same pot.  This is a dangling Petunia.  I planted several of them.  I have really grown tired of Petunias.  They did not do well in front this year like years before.  Bugs kept killing them.  I did find a spray that killed the bugs, but they were still a pain in the....ahem.....neck.  For Petunias to keep flowering, they must be deadheaded.  I am tired of that one, believe me.  I will not have as many next year.  However, these dangling Petunia's don't need deadheading for some reason.  I have done nothing with them but water and fertilize.  They bloom prolifically, then the flowers die off.  I fertilize, and they come right back and bloom again.  Incredible.

These are Vinca's.  Great plant.  Grow like crazy, and no deadheading needed.  I will plant more of these instead of Petunia's next year.  They come in different shades of pink, red, and white, and are quite showy.				This is the same pot as just above.  Notice how much it has grown.  I do not deadhead, but I did cut off some danglers that were not doing well.  That really made the plant come back in blooms.

Well, that is all for now, which is plenty.  

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