You know, I've thought of leaving a note there.
And I OFTEN think of offering to trade plants or help out everywhere I go....
Now that it's stopped BLAZING out there, maybe I'll leave a daylily or something else tough enough to not be found for a couple of days with a note.

Rick for a GUY, and a SCIENCY guy at that, you're pretty good at the sensitive stuff!

There goes my manly-nerd self-image!

"How 'bout those Seahawks!!?!!"

@overmyheadineugene:
Julie, what gorgeous plants you have! What plants are in the photo? The one with blue flowers is amazine!

@purpleinopp:
Tiffany, LOL "Wherever you can see soil at the surface of a pot, you're not out of space yet!"

@crittergarden:
I understand wanting a southfacing patio in beautiful green areas like Pennsylvania which also has cold winters, but I just moved to my apartment in mid-June, and was so grateful that my patio faces north and west. Blessedly cool during our hot spells (supposed be triple digits this weekend) and I've yet to turn on the air conditioner. The best thing about my apartement is its patio -- 11 feet of deck railing on the north and west with a shorter diagonal deck that connects the north and west portions.

I've been posting on the "Succulent and Cactus Chat for 2014" forum because I have so many questions about them. Such a gorgeous variety now, and universally available.

Here's a sample of what's available at the market closest to me (Vons, but I think it's called Safeway in other states):




And here's the price:

arapaho - Thank you very much! The blue flowers are Delphinium.

They were gorgeous!
crittergarden - I like the 'walking' story...I, too, have found special places I am fond of passing. I just started walking regularly because of the phone/camera my son gave me when he put me on his family plan. Whatever works, right?! :D Luckily I live in a retirement community complex and the entire grounds are FULL of interesting plants and gardens to look at and photograph.
A real bonanza!
LOL - The "Wherever there's soil..." got me laughing, too.
Those beautiful cactus/succulent photos really have me wanting to start my own!!!

@arapaho415 lovely succulents!

My wanting south facing windows applies wherever I'd build in the northern hemisphere - passive solar design is what I'm after. It would make MUCH more difference here, but it would be good anywhere. I lived in CA for 20 years, first 10 blocks from the beach in SF, then in the mountains west of Lake Tahoe. Spent 6 months in Sacramento when I was "between houses" & house hunting in PA. Down in Ventura, I know you get the wind off the ocean to your west, so that makes sense that the way your patio faces keeps it cooler. But I can't IMAGINE not having turned on the air at all!!!! I hate the heat. I call summer here "sauna season" because it's hot and VERY humid - like the South. Yuk.

overmyheadineugene said: Luckily I live in a retirement community complex and the entire grounds are FULL of interesting plants and gardens to look at and photograph.

And safe enough to carry an expensive camera!!!!

That neighborhood I walk in is PROBABLY safe enough, but people come in from all over and I don't want to encourage anyone to mug me for it! LOL. It has a BAD reputation at night, but is safe during the day - mostly.

@overmyheadineugene and @songofjoy:

I grew up in the San Diego area. My father was a lifer in the US Navy from Tennessee, and he took such great care of us! We had fresh vegetables year-round.

I didn't appreciate the blessed bounty when I was a kid (was it Mark Twain who said youth is wasted on the young?).

I was also disdainful of cacti because they are the native vegetation once you get a few miles inland from the coast -- our summer driving vacations usually took us through Tucson (not Phoenix -- which have completely different ecosystems) and as a snotty kid only appreciated the majestic saguaros.

But now, everywhere I go, there are succulents. Wish I had appreciated their beauty earlier, but now I'm making up for lost time, LOL.

Succulents are amazing. They truly rise from the "undead" condition to taking over your outdoor space (this is what I've heard -- only started gardening in June) here in SoCal.

To whet your appetite further for succulents, here's a couple of pix I took of an acquaintance's gorgeous container garden on Wednesday (posted these over at the Succulents 2014 forum:




And here are some fabulous gifts she gave me!

@crittergarden:

I've got to run now, but will enjoy talking to you about all the places you've lived.

What wonderful experiences for you!

I absolutely hate the heat -- gonna be over 100 here today I think -- but what's great about where I live is that it cools off once the sun goes down and I open the windows. It's 75F inside now, hasn't gotten hotter than 78F yet.

I'd either be sweltering or have the A/C on if my apartment faced south -- also my plants would all be cooked too.

excellent!

I've driven through the desert from So CAL through Tucson..... and on to Nashville.
It was a full 24 hours of nothin but desert - and NOT the lovely desert either, just low cactus & scrub.
I thought it would never end.

I think that stretch was from approaching Tuscon to approaching dfw.....
desert, night sleep desert ALL DAY, night sleep, desert again.

But the sun's not in the south in the summer!
And I'm surprised your apt is as cool as it is.

I remember the cool nights of CA and I MISS THEM!!!!
I also miss dry air.
It's only dry here when everything's frozen solid.

I wouldn't let the realtor even show me a house without central air.
And it went out late in June.......
I'll have at least a window unit in the bedroom by next summer, but this one has been a hot soggy hell!
FINALLY it's cooling to reasonable.
We'll have another uptick though before winter.
Then winter is too long, but I have new tulips to wait for this coming spring and I'll be excited!
SOME of them I don't even know what they'll look like - grab bags of dormant bulbs from a garden club.

arapaho415 said:@overmyheadineugene and @songofjoy:

I grew up in the San Diego area. My father was a lifer in the US Navy from Tennessee, and he took such great care of us! We had fresh vegetables year-round.

I didn't appreciate the blessed bounty when I was a kid (was it Mark Twain who said youth is wasted on the young?).

I was also disdainful of cacti because they are the native vegetation once you get a few miles inland from the coast -- our summer driving vacations usually took us through Tucson (not Phoenix -- which have completely different ecosystems) and as a snotty kid only appreciated the majestic saguaros.

But now, everywhere I go, there are succulents. Wish I had appreciated their beauty earlier, but now I'm making up for lost time, LOL.

Succulents are amazing. They truly rise from the "undead" condition to taking over your outdoor space (this is what I've heard -- only started gardening in June) here in SoCal.

To whet your appetite further for succulents, here's a couple of pix I took of an acquaintance's gorgeous container garden on Wednesday (posted these over at the Succulents 2014 forum:




And here are some fabulous gifts she gave me!

We lived in San Diego for 5 years and in various parts of Orange County, including Mission Viejo and San Juan Capistrano, for over 20 years. Then we moved to NorCal and were there for 12 years. I loved all of CA. Loved the climate and loved our close proximity to the ocean. That's where I began growing succulents and they remain perhaps my favorite plant of all time.

Hi fellow apartment-gardeners. Glad I found this forum. I garden in a small community garden plot (any other community garden folk out there?) and on an even smaller fire escape. Here is a picture of my plot, now dusted with snow and a covering of winter rye. I have half of it to do with as I wish. Last year I tried herbs (no good on this site) so I am planning this year to put in shade-tollerant ornamentals: hostas, ferns, Astible, Actaea racemosa and the like. Maybe if that works I will try hellebores. Herbs I will put in pots that I can move into the sun.



Here's a pic of my windowsill garden at the beginning of last summer. I found that Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus), mint, chives and lavender all did well on the fire escape, which gets lots of morning sun and is very dry, but also gets afternoon shade. The Nasturtiums sort of gave out in August.



Looking forward to hearing tips and trading stories with you all about gardening in small spaces.

Hi Matt!
I'm also glad you found this forum!

I do have a house with a yard but I watch this forum for tips and tricks on things I can grow indoors to get through the cold winters here.
SOonest on the agenda is to make the basement amenable to tropicals. Setting up lights and heat mats, etc.

I want to someday be able to do a community garden site.
Won't be soon though.

Thanks @crittergarden. I'm looking forward to experimenting more with these spaces this summer!

Other than this one thread, there hasn't been another thread posted in this forum for over 3 months. I propose we move these threads over to "All About Gardening" forum and close the forum down.

That's a shame. Community Gardening is really catching on and deserves a forum, but winter is not the time to start, I guess. I belong to my town's Community Garden, but last time I walked down there, just before Christmas, the gate was padlocked. We are all shut out until the town reopens the garden in spring, historically mid May, which is way too late for some of us. The lock out is puzzling as several members expressed an interest in winter gardening this year. This will be a topic of discussion in the spring.

Winter gardening hasn't caught in our community garden either @phoebesviolets. We generally keep the garden locked in the winter but I hope we will discuss leaving it open this next year, maybe on a reduced schedule like weekends only. Winter is a beautiful time in our garden, since the New York Restoration Project installed flowering pears (not sure if they are Callery Pears or another species) on espaliers against one of our walls, and they look just as cool without the leaves as they do with them.



@Dave I think it would be neat to keep the forum alive, unless it's a space or time issue from the back end to maintain it. It's a nice gesture to the urbanites or the folks with smaller spaces who like gardening, so I think it's awesome that you created it. I suggested to my gardening friends that they make accounts here, and I am contemplating making a shared one for the garden to keep track of all the plants that are put in the public portion. Thanks for all your work to build and maintain the site!

We'll keep it up for now but it isn't good to visit a forum and find that nobody has posted to it for a month or two. It makes the site feel like it's not that active when it reality it is quite active.