tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31740546874472774.post4631974987643425273..comments2023-07-29T10:25:56.572-04:00Comments on Life In Sugar Hollow: Container Gardening for the Sweltering SouthTraceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07639107052866905283noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31740546874472774.post-31860920448031641332008-05-30T18:26:00.000-04:002008-05-30T18:26:00.000-04:00I've been trying all week to get back here to shar...I've been trying all week to get back here to share some of my deck gardening thoughts. We have several garden areas that change throughout the year, and my deck garden is a favorite. I think I must be a slow learner, because it took me over ten years to figure out that I could plant some of what you call "backbone" plants and save myself a lot of trouble. It's a pretty big space, about 1200 s.f. of deck on four levels (three of which get planted). My evergreen "backbone" plants are a cedar, a barberry, and two euonymus. I don't know whether you would refer to my container perennials as "backbone" plants, but they are my great joy now... coneflower (I added an incredible "sunset" hybrid last year that is gorgeous), rosemary, oregano, cat mint, spearmint, coreopsis, salvia (it may be veronica... I can't remember!), and a climbing rose. I keep a coiled hose with sprayer in a pot, and I tend to water every other morning. It takes fifteen minutes, even with all those pots, because I start at one end and just work my way all around. I grouped photos with some comments into a Flickr folder, if interested,<A HREF="http://flickr.com/photos/virginia-stephen/sets/72157605345526147/detail/" REL="nofollow"> Our Deck Garden</A>. I'm trying a new fertilizer this year, along with a hydrating material, both organic and both that I've used in a tropical environment with success. I can let you know how they work, partciulalry the hydrating material, as it would be fantastic to be able to cut back on watering the containers to just 1-2 x week.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com