This is my deck this summer. Although my main garden focus is our farm in Langley,B.C., Brent and I also have a wonderful condo in Vancouver. It literally hangs over the VanDusen Botanical Garden, which you can see in the background.It is on the top floor, and we have only one ‘neighbour’. It feels like being on one of the Gulf Islands , looking out on to only forest , with the sound of traffic very muffled . Our condo came with very long stainless steel planters in place. I replant these with a different colour scheme every year. This year, I tried silver with brown and orange. I have always relied on foliage, not flowers, to create a ‘look’ and here is a good example of what you can achieve with just a few types of plants. The trailing silver plant is Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’. This annual likes shade even more than it likes sun !!! The browns and reds are Coleus, but I don’t know which ones ! I threw the tags away! The big silver leaves are ‘Dusty Miller’ plants, the variety ‘Cirrus’, which I prefer as it is bolder in appearance. Most of the orange is from a very cute new begonia called ‘SPARKS WILL FLY‘ . This cutie has exceptionally pretty dark, veined foliage and finally grew when it got hot out. I bought them at West Coast Growers in Surrey, B.C., as we didn’t even know about them ! In my pots, the scene-stealer this year is the shaggy red ‘Russellia’ in bloom. WOW – my first experience with this tropical toy, and it won’t be my last. These metal chairs (in the above photo)t are from France, made FERMOB, and available to order from Southlands Nursery, of course !

Notice the switch in chairs ? I move things around to keep it interesting. These ‘faux wicker’ chairs are from Crate & Barrel, and I love them !

The glass ‘icicles’ are there year-round, and light up at night ! They are low voltage, and look amazing in the dark, in the snow, and turn off at dawn. We sell them at the nursery, in many colours. Being on the roof of the building, and facing South, my deck is very bright and very hot ! I water by hand and have only fertilized once this year (with 20-20-20 in the water). By selecting easy to grow plants, I can be away for a few days and not have to worry about plants dying. It is a great place to unwind after work, as long as there is gin and tonic waiting  in the fridge!