My favorite place to be these days is on my patio puttering around in my container garden. Now that my two year old, Little Rabbit, is old enough to learn words and how to help me, the patio is a wonderful place to let her play safely while outside. Everyday before dinner we do play session on the patio where we water the plants and I let Little Rabbit play in the dirt with her toy shovels and watering can.

We've had some crazy hard rain the past few days. Thankfully, it let up so Little Rabbit could play outside for a bit. I've got everything bunched around the patio doors at the moment just so I can watch the progress of new plants out the doors. As things progress some plants will go in the ground and some will go in larger pots.

Entering the patio

My older plants are closest to the doors and where direct sunlight hits the longest. My four year old container blueberries (bottom left of the above pic) have sat near the doors since I got them. Right now there are plenty of berries on them. I have a smaller blueberry plant in a pot I started last year that will be a gift to my other in law. It has a few berries on it. I also have three blueberry plants in pots that will eventually end up in the yard. I've got to clear some brush before they can be transplanted.

All the small black pots in the pictures are bare roots raspberries. Around 8 out of 12 plants we put in the ground last year made it. Three are really thriving and the rest are smallish still. My husband got another round of raspberries to plant in the ground. We start them off in pots because they arrive dormant and pots help them wake up faster and give them a boost.

Right now I'm thinking my black raspberries will permanently join my container garden. I've already got yellow and red raspberries in containers. Adding black raspberries would make it a set. Raspberries are amazing container plants. They grow by sending shoots up through the dirt. I've been pulling up some of the excess shoots and putting them in new pots to have new plants. They seem to transplant super easy. We'll be swimming in raspberries someday hopefully.

The tiny brown pots on the ground are Early Girl tomato seedlings. I put them out a few days ago so they can adjust to being outside. They'll be planted in the garden bed sometime his week.

My new and first container blackberry

Cherry tree and Poe the cat

Ignore the dirty pool in the back. The tarp fell in during the winter and it's got to be cleaned soon when summer weather is here.

My container cherry tree is doing wonderfully. I'm surprised at how well it's doing. It arrived a dormant stick and with a little sunlight, water, and dirt it's come alive. Right now leaves are sprouting and growing quickly. I've got it in a 50 gallon tub of dirt. Hopefully, it has plenty of room for a while. It is a dwarf variety and should only get around four feet tall.

Roses in the greens and light blue pot

I bought three rose bushes at a store called Ollies for $3.99 a piece. Ollies is a discount store selling closeout items pretty cheap. I thought $3.99 was a good deal for rose bushes so I took a chance on three. I started them out in pots on the patio and it looks like two will make it. The weird thing about them is they are covered all over in wax. I've never seen plants coated in wax before and have slowly been picking it off of the green canes which could grow branches and leaves.

An Ollie's rose bush

The below picture is my Oso Easy Italian Ice rose I got from Burpee and it's getting it's first flowers. I paid a bit more for these to have a higher quality plant with a one year warranty in case they die in that time. They should be a neat combination of yellow and pink. This year I'm focusing on long-term landscaping. It's my goal to have some rose bushes and climbing roses around the base of the house.

Oso Easy Italian Ice Rose

Lady of Shallot roses in the ground

I also bought "Lady of Shallot" roses from Burpee when they were on sale. These are climbing roses. I'm hoping to have them climb up the side of the patio. If they turn out pretty I'll get other climbing roses to put around the base of our front porch. Since we live on a mountain, our porch is really high above the ground with our ugly basement base below. I'd like to cover the base in climbing roses.

Looking inside at my assorted seedlings

I planted tomato, sweet pepper, and eggplant seeds in bags. My sweet Little Rabbit somehow climbed the table in the middle of the night. We caught her covered in dirt with all my bags mixed up and some destroyed. I have no idea which plants are which. I've never grown peppers or eggplants before so I've waiting until some plants are big enough to figure out what they are.

Poe and the weeds

Last year I planted wildflower seeds and only got weeds with no flowers. I guess they made it through the winter and now are blooming. Thinking nothing would come of the dirt, I stole the pots to put my rose bushes in. I left the formed dirt on the railing and interestingly got flowers.

A view from the back

I've still got my baby pool from last year where I grew squash and corn. I don't know what I'll do with it this year. The squash did so amazing in it, I might just do squash in it again. I need to do some cleaning and move the pallets out. I used those to raccoon proof my pool corn last year.

It's nice to have all my plants together on the patio for now. It makes watering them very easy. When we hit the 90 degree summer weather I always appreciate my container garden because I don't have to do much work to water. It's when we expand out into the yard that the real work begins. I'm slowly getting the garden beds in order. This rain has stopped from from working the past few days.I'll be glad for out next sunny day.

Thanks for touring my container garden with me!