Deck Ambience

As I've mentioned in the past, I like to knit on my deck weather permitting while the "other" reads or relaxes. I love being surrounded by the flowers I've planted in the containers, listening to the birds singing and the water fountain sounds. In my old life (pre-accident) I had over 50 containers planted around my deck, front porch and yard. Now, I just concentrate on the deck, and let the perennials I've planted in other years help fill in the void. This year, I got a flat of some basics at a local nursery, petunias, marigolds, ageratums, etc. I usually choose more uncommon annuals to fill my containers and attract bees and butterflies, but the choice there was limited. it was a bad ankle day and I had much pain, and I needed to get home and plant, if that was going to happen at all. It was Mother's Day weekend and the nurseries were crowded. It's been 6 weeks, and those container plants, although growing, were looking sparse boring like crap and needed some happy. They were hardly photo-worthy. Sitting on the deck wasn't giving me the usual good feeling; something was incomplete, missing. Yesterday, it was a good ankle day and after my pedicure appointment, (ahhh---that was a long overdue indulgence) I went to a nursery that I knew had an awesome selection---Cannas and sweet potato vines, heliotrope, lantana, verbena, and more. $100 later (!) I had a car full of happy. :-) I got home and planted my selections with the existing flowers, and now my containers look much better. I still would like to get a couple more, but I went through my flower budget right there. These are some of the results.