Why have a bare and boring slab of cement when you can have a lovely, fragrant retreat to welcome you at the end of a long day at work. A patio flower garden can be set up in an afternoon. Perennials will live for several years and are a one-time investment. They will reward residents in southern climates year round. Northerners can over-winter the plants by bringing them inside until the last frost. People who live in apartments will need to take the weight of the plants and the condition of the balcony into consideration. Let's get started.

DIRECTIONS

Measure the patio and then buy the appropriate amount of green outdoor carpeting. This will cover any flaws in the cement as well as help to pull the look together. If you live in an apartment, then also measure the balcony railing to determine how many window boxes and railing holders will be needed.

Rummage through the kitchen and gather old, orphaned coffee mugs and other ceramics. They will be the flower pots for the smallest plants. A variety of colors and shapes will add interest to the flower garden display. A two-shelf rectangular black wire rack or a corner wire rack would be perfect to display the plants on the patio. The roots of small plants could burn if they are directly on the cement all day in a hot summer, so look for a rack that has feet on the bottom to allow air circulation between the plants and the patio.

Choose planters for the larger plants. Buy the size which will accommodate the mature plant. You do not want to disrupt flowering with the shock of being transplanted. Yard sales and moving sales usually have great prices on flower pots.

Go to the garden center and choose the plants you would like to grow. Rose bushes are fragrant and colorful and grow very well as container plants. Buy some greenery to place between the flowers --- both the larger plants and the ones which will be on the wire shelf unit. Greenery "offsets" the flowering plants in any garden and allows the beauty of each rose bush to be enjoyed. Cascading flowers, such as begonias or vine roses, would be lovely in the window boxes on the railing.

After selecting the plants, ask the garden assistant to provide the appropriate potting soil and fertilizer. Don't skimp on the fertilizer. It can mean the difference between a ho-hum plant and a flowering beauty. Buy a watering can if you need one. Patio garden plants dry out much faster than in-ground plants and need more frequent watering.

Put your new plants into their ceramic containers and play around with the arrangement until your patio looks just as you want.

Relax in a lounge chair and enjoy the fragrance and beauty of the patio flower garden which you just created.

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