This week I have been watching the trees nearby my apartment fill in with fresh green leaves and flower buds. In contrast, everything on my balcony is coated with a heavy layer of winter dust. Magpies have been tossing around the wood chips from the surface of the planters.

So far, my only nod to spring has been filling large plant saucers with water for the birds. Robins, sparrows, and messy magpies are regular visitors. Flickers, house finches and waxwings drop by when they’re in the neighbourhood.

Now that it’s time to clean up my little Eden, it’s also time to have a peak at new books on small-space gardening.

Small Space Gardening for Canada by Laura Peters comes from Lone Pine Publishing in Edmonton. Peters explores the many gardening possibilities open to city dwellers, including common property for the building, roof gardens, walkways and community gardens.

She offers instructions for making your own self-watering container and a generous section on edible plants (my favourite).

If you are looking for container planting with pizzazz, check out Pot it Up: 150 Fresh Ideas for Beautiful, Easy-to-grow Containers by Frankie Flowers, the oh-so appropriate moniker for gardening expert, Frank Ferragine. He has a flair for artistic combinations of plant materials and the results are stunning.

He organizes the planters by season and groups the plants into three categories: thrillers, fillers and spillers. For each planter, there is information about watering and light requirements. His creations are composed with a painterly approach to colour.

For the Birds is a planter filled with marigolds, lamium, coleus, petunia and nicotiana. Here, he has selected varieties that offer a palette of cream and spring green. The arrangement is topped with a rustic birdhouse to add height to the composition.

I think my birds might like that.

The growing season has been kind to me this year and my little garden has been steadily producing edibles for many weeks. The radishes arrived first in early July and are now long gone. (Next year, I might try two plantings a month apart.)

Then came the ruby chard. I have been clipping large leaves for at least a month and allowing smaller ones time to mature. It has been infiltrated by worms that grow in the leaf. So, I’m sharing the bounty with the worms and there seems to be enough for all of us.

The zucchini has produced enough to give away. You’re right; I’m bragging. I followed the advice given to me about powdery mildew ; although the plants were damaged by it, they were not decimated like last year and are still producing.

I grouped two plants together in three distinct locations: an east box, a south box and a south container. The container has failed to produce anything, perhaps overshadowed by nearby tomato plants that turned into small shrubs. Although loaded with fruit, it’s in no hurry to ripen.

Initially a challenge, the green beans have grown into lovely large plants which are yielding a generous crop. The challenge was that something was digging up the seed – maybe magpies or squirrels? However, the pesky critter didn’t like the bean seed and left it on the surface of the soil. I kept poking the bean seeds back down into the soil with my finger for several weeks (even after some had germinated!) and the plants finally took hold and grew. Very strange but kind of fun.

I began the season by enriching all the soil from last year with composted manure and have worked harder to keep the plants consistently watered and fed with a weak solution of fertilizer about every 10 days. I would like to say that all my efforts and experience are paying off – but who knows? A garden has a way of keeping you humble and never sure what is good luck or good management. This summer's garden included lettuce seed that didn’t germinate at all.

How has your garden grown? I would love to know about both flower and veg - especially if it's in a pot or a box. Tell me, as well, about books or websites that have inspired you. Pics are good too and could be shared here. Leave a comment on the blog or email me: Jane.Harrison@calgarypubliclibrary.com

Friday: DIY storage table from a Chinese pot.

Early morning finds me, coffee cup in hand, surveying my little balcony garden. This week, the zucchini plants have exploded with blooms; this bodes well for a good crop if I can keep the powdery mildew at bay. Staff at Sunnyside gave me a formula to spray on infected leaves: one teaspoon of baking soda to one liter of water. I’m giving it a try.

Besides loving zucchini and all the wonderful things you can do with it, I just love the plant. The foliage is gorgeous and so are the flowers – though short lived. I think of it as the day lily of the vegetable world.

Flower gardens throughout the city are at their peak. At this time of year, one of my favourite forms of entertainment is a stroll to check out what’s growing my neighbourhood. When your neighbourhood includes Lougheed House and the Reader Rock Garden, you have some very good places to check.

Inside our homes, flowers bring life and beauty to any room. My favourite potted plants indoors are budget-friendly, readily available, stalwarts that stay in bloom for 6 to 12 weeks: African violets, orchids and cyclamen.

“Not orchids!” you say. The charmer in the picture was purchased at the North Hill Home Depot, on sale for $12.00, and has been blooming happily for several months.

At Home with Flowers(2011) by Jane Packer demonstrates the enormous decorative impact of clever floral arrangements. Single, lime yellow dahlias, cut to different heights, fill a cluster of exotic brass vases grouped on a brass and glass coffee table.

On an antique sideboard revived with white paint, sprigs of veronica and astilbe fill a large collection of vintage milk bottles. Flowers fill mugs and seashells. Arrangements decorate bathroom ledges, kitchen counters and stairways.

It’s all very inventive and often dramatic. It makes me want to try harder and stretch beyond my stalwarts.

Perhaps next year I will try to grow some cutting flowers to bring indoors.

Fountains create focal spots for balcony, garden or deck. The symphony of sound is relaxing and softens the edges of neighbourhood noise.

When searching the catalogue for information on building a smaller fountain in a pot, subject keywords “tabletop fountains” are most helpful. Here are the books that caught my eye.

Tabletop fountains: 40 Easy and Great-Looking Projects to Make (1999) by Dawn Cusick offers clear information about the mechanics of the fountain along with design tips and examples.

She builds a patio fountain from plain clay flower pots (p. 64). Three pots and saucers of different sizes are arranged inside a very large saucer so that water cascades from the largest to the smallest. The arrangement is capped by a spider plant and saucers are lined with polished stones. Very effective.

I also liked the face mask fountain (p.76) and stacked squares fountain (p.89).

In Tranquility Fountains: Projects for a Serene Lifestyle(2002), the Global Meditation Table (p. 52) is an arrangement of two stone-filled trays with water spurting through the holes of a salt shaker located in the middle of the smallest tray.

Copper & Wind chimes fountain (p. 84) uses copper tubing to channel the water in a serpentine design with wind chimes made from the same tubing to stir in the breeze. Another clever arrangement is the Waterfall fountain (p36) built with slabs of slate.

In Creative Tabletop Fountains(2002) by Marthe Le Van, projects include a Peaceful Pagoda (p. 45) made from ceramic bonsai containers and the Seashore Memory Fountain (p.69) where the water is channeled through a large sea shell.

Simple fountains for indoors & outdoors(1999) offers instructions for working with bamboo and wood to create spouts and dippers. One of the loveliest fountains is featured on the cover: a pottery jar that spills water into an antiqued copper basin filled with polished rocks.

I also found inspiration on the web.

Don Vandervort’s Hometips shows a classic Japanese design with bamboo and water plant. Garden Gate magazine offers a clever arrangement for a small patch of garden.

Sunset features a very pretty fountain made from a tall ceramic garden pot. This one would work for either garden or balcony.

Among my favourite sounds of summer are the gurgle and splash of water. I love fountains and discovered a few years ago how easy it is to make your own. I would say "as easy as child’s play", except we are talking water and electricity, folks; it’s not a good project for the young ones. Think of it as the adult equivalent of wading pool and bucket and enjoy puddling (safely) around.

The goal is to take a pot of water and pump a bit of it through a plastic tube so that it falls and tumbles back into the pot in an eye and ear-pleasing way. You could create a fountain for the cost of the pump and tubing, using garden and kitchen equipment on hand.

Equipment Basics

• Water pump. For a small fountain, a small pump (costing $15.00 or less) will do.
• Plastic tubing to fit the size of the pump outlet. You can find this in the plumbing section of stores like Rona and Home Depot. It will cost about $5.00. Take careful measurements and remember that it is the outside dimension of the outlet that fits the inside dimension of the tubing. Better yet, take the pump with you when you shop and ask for help from the staff.
• Clamp to secure the tubing to the pump (less than 50 cents).
• Waterproof pot or container.
• Decorative object/spout to channel the water.
• Stones, pots or dishes to bounce the water around.

My water fountain is made from a Chinese egg pot which I bought from a grocery store. (I love the dragon.) The cast-iron fish came from Canadian Tire (or maybe Zellers) and was designed to hold a tea light. The slatted wood ledge where the fish sits came with the pot. Originally, it covered the whole top and was used to stack the pots one on top of another. I cut it in half with a hand saw.

Inside the pot, a saucer sits on top of a liter-sized plastic yogurt container filled with water (could be stones) to keep it from floating. A cream jug, turned on its side, rests on the saucer. Plastic tubing from the pump is fed up through the slatted wood ledge, through the back of the fish and out the mouth. The water pumped through it falls into the cream jug, bounces onto the saucer and splashes back into the water in the bottom of the pot. The slatted ledge conveniently organizes the electrical cord from the pump as well as the tubing.

The fun with making a fountain comes in arranging the bits and pieces to bounce the water around. You can use rocks and plants to hide the working parts of the pump. The flash of the camera has revealed the tubing at the back of my fountain and you can see how it works. Without the camera’s power assist, the working parts are not that obvious. Kind of like red eye.

FRIDAY: More on fountains - books and blogs.

Container gardens are excellent devices for the space-challenged gardener or the garden with a trouble spot. They can add a jolt of colour or a small pocket of serenity. What you quickly learn is that the container is as important as the plants to providing a satisfying visual experience. Here are a few of the lovely books inspiring me this year.

Succulent Container Gardens: Design Eye-Catching Displays with 350 Easy-Care Plants by Debra Lee Baldwin (Timber Press 2010)

Succulents are the perfect plant for container gardening in Calgary. Abetted by our strong sunshine and dry climate, containers dry out quickly. Succulents get by with minimal water, so are more forgiving for absent-minded gardeners. Succulents have impressive sculptural qualities that add texture to the garden; their little leaves are bulked up like young dudes on steroids.

Baldwin’s containers are varied and interesting. Hard materials, such as crushed gravel, polished pebbles, marbles or driftwood, complement colourful plants.

Successful Container Gardening: 75 Easy-to-Grow Flower and Vegetable “Gardens” by Joseph R. Provey (Creative Homeowner 2010)

Provey suggests winning combinations like planting rosemary with oregano, pineapple mint and lavender and recommends saving 4-gallon nursery containers for larger vegetables like squash. “Chard is one of those amazing plants that’s difficult to eat fast enough," he says. Not quite my experience last summer.

The book has clear instructions for making hypertufa containers. Hypertufa is a composition of Portland cement, peat moss, sand and vermiculite. Planters made from this material mimic old stone water troughs which are expensive, hard to heft as well as hard to find.

(Find easy-to-follow instructions online as well from sources like Fine Gardening and Martha Stewart.)

Container Gardening: Fresh Ideas for Outdoor Living by Hank Jenkins (Sunset 2010)

“Think of containers as problem-solvers,” advises Jenkins. You can target these tiny perfect gardens to suit your situation. They can be customized for sun or shade, ornamental or edible. They might feature scent or water. Choose the container to suit your style, for example, contemporary, formal or rustic.

I love the Japanese-inspired combination of spiky grass-like rush encircled by Scotch moss on p. 104. His chef’s special combines Early Girl tomato with purple ruffles basil, garlic chives and jalapeno chili in a galvanized tub.

Continuous container gardens : swap in the plants of the season to create fresh designs year-round by Sara Begg Townsend (Storey Pub. 2010)

The title says it all. One of the delights of container gardening is that a failed experiment or just end-of-season weedy growth can be refreshed into a beauty spot with new plants to suit the season and it’s not a deep-pocket enterprise. If you hit the garden centers late in the season, there are beautiful bargains for refilling pots.

For those who enjoy formal gardens, Container Topiary (2003) by Susan Berry shows how to sculpt plants into globes, spirals and standards. Standards are neat balls of flowers or foliage on top of a clear stem – lollipop plants. For garden whimsy, twist wire into bird and animal shapes to support the plants which are trimmed to the shape.

Better Homes and Gardens Complete guide to container gardening by Kate Carter Frederick (John Wiley & Sons, 2010) demonstrates the creation of planters from concrete pavers that are budget-friendly containers with contemporary flair (p. 46).

Salvage Style in Your Garden: Inspirational ideas and over 30 projects for using rescued and recycled materials in the garden by Moira and Nicholas Hankinson (2001). Upcycling hits the deck with this old charmer. The Hankinsons repurpose an old dining chair into a planter by removing the upholstered seat and fitting it with a zinc tray drilled with holes for drainage.

Other planters are made from packing cases, waste bins, spray-painted tires and even an ex-army latrine bucket. Who knew there was such a thing?

Canadian Gardening shows an old boot filled with succulents:

As I tripped around the web, I found old boots with plants surprisingly popular.

The moral of the story is that anything that can hold an adequate amount of soil and water – and appeals to your aesthetic soul (no matter how outré) – can contain a plant.

When I downsized to a condo last year, I gained an L-shaped balcony with exposures east and south. The balcony was built with a continuous line of planting boxes attached to the top. They are mounted in sections about three feet long and a foot wide and deep. Sounds ideal; but they didn’t provide drainage. “Like a bathtub without a plug,” quipped one of my neighbours.

In fact, the arrangement moves from one extreme to the other: parched-dry on the south side and pools on the northeast end which collects water draining off the building from the floors above.

Still, I’m always up for a challenge. I set about replenishing the soil with a mix recommended by Mel Bartholomew, the square-foot gardening guru. I drained the boggy bits and watered the dry parts.

The garden I left behind with my house was mostly shaded by mature trees which limited my plant choice. With all that sunshine, I determined to grow veggies as well as flowers. Books like Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail were inspiring. She turns every available corner on balcony, stoops and window sills into an opportunity for food production.

I planted chard, radishes, zucchini, beans, tomatoes, basil, oregano and sorrel. Dusty miller interspersed petunias and geraniums in pots. Some of it worked and some of it didn’t; gardens are like that. New ventures offer so many learning opportunities, don’t they?

The chard and beans produced very little. Powdery mildew took out flourishing zucchini plants midway through summer and a hail storm pummeled off three quarters of the blooming branches from one of my tomato plants. On the up side, the radishes and herbs were very successful.

This year I’m using fewer plants in these forbidding boxes and have planted my veggies in pots which I can shelter against the warm brick of the building. I’m hoping that the tomatoes will be especially pleased with this treatment. Gardeners are always hoping.

If you are gardening with containers, there’s lots of inspiration online. Canadian Gardening offers many articles. Jim Hole designs succulent and water gardens and offers plant lists for both. Bonus.

And, of course, the library has wonderful books on the topic. And that's my next blog.