it's a jungle out there

Witness: abundant growth! My balcony garden is thriving this summer. Ivy wraps Kwan Yin in an emerald embrace; Baby Tears form a lush green blanket at her feet and tumble into the fountain. True, a bit of careful pruning might improve the vignette but everything is so joyfully rampant, I haven't had the heart to cut it back.

Many of my neighbours make do with a few pots of geraniums or no plants at all, fearful that our north-facing balconies don't get enough sun for a "real garden". That's true if we're talking about roses and sunflowers, but there are plenty of wonderful shade-tolerant plants that will happily grow in containers. My favourites, in no particular order, are: Tuberous Begonia, Impatiens, English Ivy; Spider Plant, Dracaena, Potato Vine, Boston Fern, Bamboo, Caladium, Sweet Woodruff, Licorice Vine, Bird's Nest Fern, Vinca, and Black Mondo Grass. Fuchsia, with its 'tiny dancer' flowers, likes the shade, too, but I'm fairly certain they were responsible for the Great Aphid Infestations of '04 and '05, so they're flora non grata on my balcony now.

Somehow, I forgot to plant Sweet Woodruff this year and have missed the lovely scent of it in my garden. (While perennial, it won't survive the harsh Toronto winter in a container.) The whorls of glossy foliage form luscious green mounds with pretty clusters of sweet-scented white flowers all summer long. This one will definitely be back next year.

So...how does your garden grow?