Gardening Flowers Site

When I was just barely in my twenties, I rented a small house in San Francisco, just two blocks from the beach. The house was modest and plain, but had a small front yard with little else growing besides an abundance of cineraria, a lovely perennial with purple-magenta daisy like flowers. My house had a porch and two windows facing the street, under which were a couple of dilapidated window box planters, with nothing inside of them, not even dirt. I found my new house to be charming. Not having enjoyed the luxury of a garden in previous third-story Victorian apartments, I was delighted at this diamond in the rough. It just needed a little TLC to make it come alive.

My first improvement was filling up those window box planters. Even though, my budget matched the appearance of the house, I did want the best results for my money. Naturally, I began with the window boxes, by adding some potting soil and a few flowers. Now I was in business.

Daffodils and tulips first sprang to mind, since it was early winter when I took up residency. These flowers were easily planted to add lots of spring colors to enjoy in a few months. Visualizing a burst of sunshiny colors surrounding the front door was a cinch. I quickly set my mind for planning the summer flowers for my window box planters, shortly after I planted my bulbs. However, the San Francisco beach area is fairly restrictive when considering various plant life. What with fog, fog and even more fog, the climate was considerably more depressing when you consider that everything about the house was gray. Yes, gray walls, gray roof and even gray window planter boxes. Those before me, I decided had absolutely no imagination at all.

I decided to use magenta paint for the front door, the trim and the window boxes. It looked so much better! While this also made the cineraria stand out very nicely, while livening up the houses exterior, considerably.

I was thrilled beyond measure as the daffodils and tulips began surfacing and coming into bloom, yes, I even talked to them. I had already been planning for the summer and fall, the flowers I would plant in my amazing colored window box planter. When the time came, I delicately began to interplant begonias, magenta and purple fuchsias in between each of the bulbs and then chose some dark turquoise trailing lobelias for good measure. These new flowers were well underway, by the time summer took the bulbs. All these flowers thrived in such a moist and darkened environment. For even more color I chose a variegated coleus. My visitors found this as charming as I did, while they complimented its beautiful display of colors.

Eventually, fall became winter and pink, white and red cyclamens quickly replaced the summer flowers. I brought my begonias inside to wait out the winter in pots. However, ferns and spider plants began taking over the underside of the roof of the porch, as they hung from their hooks, so reminiscent of delightful ballroom belles. It is interestingly amazing how much difference a couple of four foot window box planters can give a house such wonderful curb appeal.