Urban Stoop Gardening

Who says you need a yard to have a garden? Urban living may not be all that conducive to the traditional concept of "gardening," but with a little creativity, we found container gardening to be fulfilling not only to us, but also to our neighbors walking past our stoop.

Back in May we bought two storage footlockers and planted gladiola bulbs in one and shooting star bulbs in the other. The shooting stars never really came to fruition but the glads shot up out of the moisture control soil like rockets and have bloomed for the last three months. They have been so successful we recently staked the plants with bamboo to maintain their height. We added some snapdragons, a few annuals, a henna plant, blue daze, and Mexican heather to the mix in addition to the aloe plant we transplanted from my to-be-father-in-law's monster aloe plant in his southern California backyard. The strangest part? All plants have remained untouched, unharmed, and unlittered in, except that recently we noticed that someone stole the terra cotta planter with the aloe in it, which to be honest, was alive, but hasn't looked so great in it's new northeastern home.

Moral of the story: regardless of how dead or how great your container garden looks, go with plastic planters which are ultimately better for the plants and drainage, but also aren't as likely to be stolen.

More on our vegetable, herb, and fruit garden on the roof next time.