A Little Deck Planting

The weather has been wonderful the past two weekends here in the mid-Atlantic, so we have taken the opportunity to clean up and do some planting on the deck.  It is hard to believe that next Friday will be the first of May.  I would say we are far enough into the spring season to do some planting. I remember snow in April in years past, but I do not recall snow in May.

Some pictures for you to enjoy of what we have been working on.

Regular readers of the Welcome to Crest Avenue blog may remember that we acquired this new hanging planter last year from Behnke's Nurseries in Beltsville.  I like the mottled green finish on this planter.  I wanted to put something really special in it this year.  So I went looking.

And what did I find?  A beautiful fuchsia.  These are so pretty.  I have planted them in hanging baskets in past years and they add so much beauty to your garden landscape.

Here it is planted in the hanging planter.  It is still kind of sparse, but as the season goes, it will fill out nicely.  A little shot of Miracle Gro never hurt either.  In about a months time, this should be looking really spectacular.

Then we turned to ferns.  I love ferns in the garden landscape.  They are so beautiful and their fronds add movement and interest.  This year I decided to do a combination of ferns.

We started with these very upright ferns called "Kimberly Queen" fern.  I really like their vertical trajectory.  They add height to the deck garden.

The remnants of a Boston Fern from last year.  The winters are so cold here that these decorative ferns do not survive.  I tried a few times over the years to winter them inside.  Disastrous and a complete waste of time.  Unless you have a green thumb like no other, and are willing to spend the requisite time monitoring the humidity level in the area where they are stored and misting and turning them so they get just the right amount of winter light and all of that, don't bother.  I ended up with brown fern fronds all over the place and ferns that did not make it once I placed them outdoors in the spring.  They range from $10 - $12 per plant at your local nursery every spring.  It's worth the cost to buy fresh.  Then you start the season with beautiful, healthy plants that will last until the first hard frost of winter rather than setting out ferns with one frond left that you tried to save from last year. That's not a good look - the one frond fern!

So we got the old fern out and amended the soil with some fresh, new soil.

Then, into the pot with one of the new Kimberly Queen Ferns.  This is the perfect spot.  Ferns love it here.  They get just the right amount of sun and shade.  All I have to do is keep it watered and it will flourish.

In the planter box, I thought we would do an all green themed planting this year.  Mostly with ferns, but we added a few other things as well.  Here we have a Kimberly Queen Fern on the right, a Boston Fern in the middle, an agave (with the pale colored leaves) and in the back is a specimen of a cyprus tree.

I love this old birdbath basin.  I have used it as a planter for the past two summers.  I like the rustic elements of it with the rusted metal form exposed in some areas.  Perfect for a small planting of ferns. This is actually three small ferns planted closely together to resemble one large fern.

And finally, the Christmas cactus.  This was quite a stunner during the holiday season with the most beautiful hot pink blooms.  I actually looks like it wants to bloom again.  Let's see what happens.

Things are changing very quickly here.  Warm days have brought on all of the spring blooms and buds.  The yard guys have already visited twice.  Let's enjoy these spring days with low humidity and comfortable temperatures, 'fore they will not last.