![\"This](\"http:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/house.jpg\")
<\/a>This view of the house shows the barnboard siding, the cedar-shingled roof, the round chimneys and the peculiar ‘eyebrows’ over the windows.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Built on a hillside, the house is surrounded by decks, three of which are shown in the picture above. \u00a0All of the decks are above ground and some jut out into space, ending in sharp points. This is unusual, to say the least.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>This is the only photo I have of this deck without furniture. You’ll have to ignore the inverted branches on the deck; they were part of an exhibition I mounted a few years ago.<\/p><\/div>\n
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These sharp points create difficulties, both\u00a0in relation to\u00a0the placement of furniture and to the choice and arrangement of containers. \u00a0The pointy bit at the end of the deck above is too narrow for a chair and\u00a0too large a space to leave vacant. Over the years, I’ve filled it with plants in pots — annuals, perennials, small evergreens, or anything else that caught my eye.<\/p>\n
Finding\u00a0a combination\u00a0of plants and pots that fill the space and yet fit into the modernist aesthetic of the house isn’t easy. I face the same challenge in the planters and pots on other decks. \u00a0 So, at the mid-point of August, as my containers are starting to look tired, I find myself evaluating what\u00a0I’ve planted. Do they fit the house?\u00a0Are they the best I can do?<\/p>\n
1. Choosing the right plants<\/h6>\n
The arrangement below, from 2002, was one of the most colourful I could find in my photo catalogue. I liked it then and overall, I still do. It is fun and frothy. But it doesn’t suit the strong clean\u00a0lines of the house.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>I have successfully overwintered many of these plants and am still using some of them.<\/p><\/div>\n
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The same is true for this combination of plants that I used last year on the dining room deck on the other side of the house. It is exuberant and colourful, but clean and spare it is not.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>The colour of the petunias is amazing, particularly with the lime green grasses, now growing in a border near the garage. But the agastache which looked so good at the beginning of the season didn’t do well as summer progressed.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/h6>\n2. Breaking habits<\/h6>\n
I am only now starting to recognize that there’s a mismatch between the plants I’m using and the architecture of the house. \u00a0Year after year I have done more or less the same thing, putting similar plants in the same pots. In part I’ve repeated myself\u00a0because I’ve overwintered plants to reduce the annual cost. Mainly, though, I’ve planted variations on a theme because I haven’t tried to come up with\u00a0anything better.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Winds are strong at this end of the deck, adding a level of difficulty to plant choices. I do like the addition of the Chinese pot — it adds variety and reinforces the Asian feel of the house itself.<\/p><\/div>\n
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With its spiky grasses, the arrangement above, located in the pointy part of the living room deck, is getting closer to the style\u00a0I’m looking for. But it’s not there yet. The geraniums are wrong, too cottagy and familiar. Yet after keeping them for so many years, ditching them will\u00a0be hard.<\/p>\n
As will\u00a0changing other habits.\u00a0For the last ten years or so, I’ve planted castor bean plant (Ricinus communis )<\/em>\u00a0at the opposite end of this deck. I like their bold leaves and the contrast between their clear green and the reddish-brown of the barnboard siding behind them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’ve been buying these plants annually but this year, thanks to a friend, I learned that they are easy to start from seed. So that’s a few dollars I won’t be spending from now on.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Lantana features in a grouping of pots near the castor bean plants shown above. I’ve kept the lantana growing and blooming for six or seven years now, in part because lantana\u00a0reminds me of my son and his family who live in Australia, where lantana will grow as big as a house if you let it, but also because I like the colours and the blooms that continue all summer long.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Don’t you love the alien eyes?<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n There are other plants on the same deck\u00a0that I like — this pink one, for instance, that attracts bees….<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I think this is a dark-leafed sweet potato vine, but I’ve had it for so many years that I can’t be sure.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n and the electric\u00a0grass that spills so nicely over the edge of the pot.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Can anyone identify this plant? If I’m keeping it, surely I should know its name!<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n But while the individual flowers in this arrangement please me, the combination as a whole does not. Some years it may have been better, but the problem is the same: habit. It doesn’t take a lot of\u00a0time or thought to put the same plants in the same pots, year after year, and that’s more or less what I’ve been doing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I overwintered almost all of these plants. The pink one on the far left was a freebie from the Garden Bloggers Fling, held this year in Toronto.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n This year I simplified the planter by the kitchen door, using only coleus and a small hosta. I like the brightness\u00a0in this dark area, particularly when set against the barnboard siding that on this part of the house is a weathered grey. I also like the simplicity that results from using\u00a0two plants only.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This planter is in shade for most of the day so the combination of coleus and hosta has worked well.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n This year I changed the planters on the dining room deck\u00a0entirely, moving from the exuberance \u00a0of orange and lime to a single shade of green. \u00a0Boxwood with straight-trimmed edges repeats\u00a0the lines of the house’s architecture and using a single plant adds a peaceful note\u00a0to an area that is often noisy\u00a0with children, grandchildren and friends.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a>3. Leaving sentimental attachments behind<\/h6>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>Solutions:<\/h5>\n
1. Reduce\u00a0the number of different\u00a0plants:<\/h6>\n
<\/a>2.\u00a0Consider colour and shape<\/h6>\n