So, anyway, how do I set up a patio garden? Well, first I determined where the sun would be at what times of the day. Plants that could only handle partial sunlight would be placed in areas with morning sun. Plants that needed mostly sunlight would be placed in areas with afternoon sun, since that lasted about 8 hours while the morning sun was only good for 4 or 5 before being blocked by the building. I hung some of the plants up under the patio cover. Pothos ivy doesn't need direct sunlight, so it was placed in an area that might get a little bit of morning sun or just bright light. The ivy did very well and often needed a "hair cut"! I actually bought one ivy, made cuttings and then rooted them in several different containers. By the end of the summer people were joking about my "rain forest out back."
Rather than just lining the pots up in a row, you can also make interesting center pieces or other points of interest in the patio garden. I took some heavy cinder blocks and stood them up on their sides, like pillars. I bought some white rubber coated wire shelves from the hardware store and cut them to the desired length (you can use a bolt cutter or hacksaw for this) and added some rubber stoppers on the ends so no one would get cut on the sharp edges. I set those shelves on top of the cinder blocks to make outdoor shelves. Because the wire is coated, it didn't rust and it was strong enough to handle a row of 6-10 inch pots. This created a raised area for plants, and left space underneath and around the shelves for more. It also allowed for easy drainage and cleanup.
In the fall, I make sure to remove any dead plant material to avoid pest problems. My marigolds have bloomed and shriveled, and I save the seeds pouches for next year. Some of my plants survived into the winter. I couldn't take the aloe in when it froze, because there was just too many. However, it only just freezes here, maybe to about 28° for a few days and then warms back up. I bought some material that is used to line gardens with to prevent weeds, it's a black semi-transparent material that you can buy on a roll, but you can also use a sheet or plastic, and I covered my plants during the freeze times, using clothespins to hold the pieces together in case there was a breeze. It seemed to be enough to shelter the plants from freezing badly, but I might have needed a heavier material if it were to become much colder. When it begins to warm back up, I "assess the damage" and remove any dead or dying plants. I break up the soil in the pots that had annuals and plant the new seeds and bulbs.
I hope this article has been insightful and encouraged you to give gardening a try! You'll probably find as I did that you do better with some plants rather than others. Lifestyle and your attention span might have something to do with this, but the environment might also - just try to keep an open mind and see what works for you!
