Gardening In A Small Space

I thought I have to give up being surrounded by wildlife altogether when we decided to move back close to the city.  As it happens, I did not lose that joy of living in the mountains where I hear the wild birds singing each morning and the bees and butterflies hovering over flowers.  By planting flowering plants and putting out bird seeds and water in our tiny backyard, I'm inviting them to

to come.

Can you see a real butterfly in this photo?

The plant is a sweet potato which was bought from an Asian store. This is the kind that bears flowers and if given more space to sprawl, it will be all over the place and produce edible tubers on its many vines.   It's not an invasive specie due to the fact that it is very sensitive to cold weather.  Its tubers as well as its vines rot in the winter time when left outside.  If one wants to save the tubers for next year planting, one has to dig up the tubers and store them in a dry place, ideally in the garage.

The flower of a Sweet Potato is like that of the Morning Glory vine.

The plant in the foreground is yellow Coleus.   Bees, Bumblebees and Humming Birds love its flowers.  They have grown so tall and produced very large leaves in reaction to the absence of morning sunlight.  These area only receives sunlight from noon until dark.

The plant in the background with yellow flowers is Nasturtium,  this too produced very large leaves.

I even planted Bitter Melon, see the young fruit?  It flowered abundantly but most of its flowers were male flowers and only few female flowers that developed into fruits.

The plant in the center is Basil, plant to the right is Taro (Gabi), to the left is a mix pot of Nasturtium and Sweet Potato.

Coleus plants and Yard Long beans are planted together on the narrow garden bed.

Do you have a garden?  How does your garden grow?  I'm happy with my garden this year.  It is very small (most of the plants are in pots), very easy to maintain.  Takes me about 10 minutes to water them all and it gives me the same joy without spending too much time and energy.

Happy gardening everyone!