Plants For A Bright Shade Patio

I moved recently. Said goodbye to the food forest I had for almost twenty years and went somewhere smaller that I didn’t have to worry about the upkeep of a 1/4 acre. I now have a beautiful shaded patio, and I do something I never did with my large garden: sit and enjoy it. I spend hours every morning out here watching hummingbirds, anole lizards and toads doing their thing. I’m actually grateful for the change. I never would have left that garden willingly and the relationship I had to deal with in that home was not healthy and had escalated into something that had become physically dangerous for me.

So. Different place. Different goals. Different life. It is well, with my soul. But I wanted to discuss what I put in, as far as fool proof plants that I don’t have to worry about temperature fluctuations, or watering issues, in a patio setting. All of the pots on my patio are wicking (a la Gardening with Leon. Perhaps the sweetest gardening grandpa you could follow, and he has excellent ideas for wicking pots.)

Anyway, I lost a lot, getting away from my house. Things happened that the Victim’s Advocate assured me could not happen. But, I knew who I was leaving. I knew those things were coming, and they did. But I didn’t give up “me”, even though I gave up my garden and my home. So, I have a porch full of plants that I absolutely love spending time in. And a physical place that I am finally safe, after 20 years of a lack of that. I don’t need to escape the inside of my house, by spending all my time outside, to get away from someone who was hurting me.

Anyway, back to the porch: there are a couple of stars of the show. These plants require spray because they attract spidermites and aphids, but to me: they’re worth it. Those are: plumeria and gardenia. I spray these once a week or every other week with Neem oil.

My beautiful Gardenia that is waiting for cooler temperatures to flower for me.

Usually, if you are trying to grow a specialty plant, it’s going to be something that gives you fits, for one reason or another.

Plumeria are fully tropical plants and gardenias are fussy.

Two plumeria. Why do I have two in one pot? Because I’m on a patio: Rules go out the window and things are grown according to the space available.

But they are worth babying, (to me) so I really focus on them and everything else is filler. If you have either of these plants and they are not flowering for you. Surprise! This is more of the “giving you fits” from specialty plants. Gardenia likes acid soil. In a wicking pot, you can help that along with a Tbsp or two of vinegar in a gallon of water every other watering. I have seen repeated references for a cup of vinegar in a gallon of water. Please don’t do that. That is way too acidic and will kill whatever you water with that.

I add miracle grow for blooms. You don’t need to add special acidic fertilizer if you add a Tbsp of vinegar in your watering can. My water is super high pH. Watering everything with a little acid every once in a while isn’t a big deal. Since these are wicking tubs I just fill the port to the basin the gardenia is in, with its own supply of acidic water. Then I’m not spending extra on its own fertilizer. You can buy special fertilizer if you want to. I just don’t.

I also add super thrive. I actually have no idea what is in superthrive, it claims it is plant “vitamins” not “fertilizer”. I have used it for decades and it does help in a big way, so it’s become a staple.

I also use osmocote granules for slow release fertizer. You are completely covered for fertilization with those three products.

Outside of fussy pH and fertilizer needs, the gardenia gets aphids. The plumeria gets spidermites. I spray weekly with Neem. Like I said, these plants are fussy. Gardenia likes cool weather for blooming. Expect fall or early summer blooming. Plumeria loves full sun. If you don’t have it, you may not get blooms. Plumeria also likes to dry between watering. It did really well in full sun in a raised bed for me in my food forest, but then because it got so big, I couldn’t bring it inside for winter so I lost a huge bush. I’m not sure how these are going to deal with my wicking pot, but these were not expensive plants, they are just some favorite flowers. I’m also out here to unwind from constant legal dealings. This is about all the energy I have time to spend on plants.

If this vine could talk I imagine it would be saying to my potted plant, “Hey, how you doin? You work out? It looks like you work out.” Potato vines are the big brainless jocks of the plant world. However, if you need some privacy or a giant area covered with greenery and you are in a warm to warm-ish environment (if you are in zones 3-8…so basically everywhere…they’ll grow in your summer weather, but they do particularly well in hot humid conditions), potato vines are the go to plant. I put some twine up today to help my wandering potato vine find something else to cover rather than my poor unsuspecting vinca and pentas pot.

My potato vine, attempting to take over the world.

For massive vining coverage with zero effort I pinched some potato vines this spring and they are starting to grow uncontrollably. Which is their purpose.

Purple potato vine, which will lose the weight lifting challenge to the green vine, but with some help from the gardener can be coaxed to compete. And my awesome chayote vine climbing to whatever height he will go. I’ve never grown chayote before. It is now my very favorite vegetable.

Twine to help the potato vine find something more appropriate to do with himself.

Chayote. It sprouted. I planted. I have no idea if this is how you do this. Guess we’ll see!

Dancing geese. You have to have something to make yourself laugh.

For constant color I have pentas and vinca in pots.

Red pentas will attract hummingbirds. They are a sturdy, reliable flower here. The vinca are so pretty with their white whorls of petals. I have several hummingbirds on my patio drinking both nectar from the pentas and from feeders that I put out. Hummingbirds are one reason why I recommend attempting first to knock down bugs with Neem. Try and be pollinator friendly first, before you resort to strong poisons. Although, if it gets bad enough and you are losing plants, even I was about ready to switch to a systemic a few weeks ago. Sometimes on a small patio you don’t have enough ways to control the environment to succeed with less toxic solutions.

I have a new guinea impatiens that I’ve never grown before and I spread around with cuttings. It keeps randomly dying or struggling. I have no more use for it. I will not purchase another one.

These two plants (the new guinea impatiens and lisianthus) are ridiculous. They both go along for a while and out of nowhere collapse and die. I’m so over anything that cannot take care of itself. I will baby gardenia. I will baby plumeria. Do not think I will extend the same invitation to you, random stupid plant! These both were pretty, while they were pretty. But ultimately I will not grow them again.

I pinched a vining angel wing begonia this spring and I have pieces of it everywhere. I love begonias. I definitely recommend any begonia you can find, if you have bright shade. I pinched some mint. It’s doing great because mint is indestructible.

I also have some deep blue salvia that probably needs more sun than I have, but the blooms are beautiful when it has them.

I am also growing a star jasmine. It probably needs more light. There’s one out a little farther than my patio with lots of growth and no flowers. Mine is throwing out vines, and I’m taking better care of mine, than the one planted near me, but mine may wait until it’s a little bigger to flower.

Then I have seedlings: Chives, which really don’t do well in our heat, but are coming along nicely anyway. Basil, which self sows and feeds bees when it flowers. (I got my basil seeds from a hotel at check-in, in Santa Barbara, when I went out earlier this summer for my step mom’s celebration of life. So getting more seeds from these plants is a goal. When you are a gardener, sometimes plants have a back story.

I also have black flowering hollyhocks coming up from seed. I have never had luck with hollyhocks but I’ve never had time to focus on them. So. Tradeoffs. Maybe this year I’ll get lucky.

The last thing I’m growing is sprouted chayote. I have decided these are my absolute favorite vegetables and they have heavy vines. I’ve strung a lot of twine everywhere because my goal is an enclosed patio.

Side note: my grandfather had a completely enclosed (by vines) patio at the last house that he lived in. He named it Owangalama from Danny Kaye’s “The Tale of the Name of the Tree“. (You can listen to it on YouTube.) I spelled it wrong, plus I didn’t know my family’s story behind it (it was the only record my uncle owned when he was little, so he listened to it constantly.) so my porch is named Owangalamu, in honor of my grandfather’s porch and my poor spelling. So anything that is a strong vining plant is welcome out there, chayote included. These are not the spiny kind, but the fruit does have bizarre sap that requires gloves to peel them. However, wow! Potatoes dream of tasting this good. So I’m growing a bunch of them.

Why? Because I can, and because I have the room, pots and soil for it.

So is the end of my quarter acre the end of my blog? Absolutely not. I have had a reader ask me to write a book. I will be doing that, as well as resurrecting past posts with better photography, and new posts with what I learned from 20 years of running a food forest. I’ll be sharing more of my accumulated knowledge, now that I am not spending the whole day throwing bags of soil around. Now, I have time to think and write. I actually think this blog is going to improve and I’m going to be able to share more effectively, because: I’m not going to be so busy creating, that I don’t have time to sit down and organize my sharing.

I hope to see you along this new journey. I think this is going to be really fun. And maybe it can contain more Q&A than we’ve had here in the past.

Looking forward to seeing you out in Owangalamu, where we can watch hummingbirds while discussing what fruit does and does not do well in Texas heat.

Crazy Green Thumbs