1. Need suggestions when you have some free time about what to do with an outdoor bed. It's in just about full sun, rectangular, about 8.5 feet wide and 22 feet long, slopes slightly so that the bottom end can have wet clay for long periods (bog garden, maybe?). It used to be a veggie garden but I got sick of all the work involved in veggies. The past couple of years I have used it for a rather formal tropical hibiscus garden, with a 100 gallon stock tank in the middle for tropical lilies and two rows of hibiscus (about 14 of them!). I added some cannas and bananas in the back corners this year for height and liked the look. I also plunked a few gift hardy hibiscus in there in late fall for lack of a better spot.
I'm getting bored with it, and I'm getting REALLY tired of all the work involved in overwintering so many tropical hibiscuses. I was going to make a bigger pond, maybe 8x8 square, mostly raised, for my collection of tropical waterlilies, but I'm not sure they're going to survive indoors this winter.
Every now and then I think I'd like to add a small, lovely blooming tree or shrub (I love redbuds and weeping cherries), but then I'd make more shade and I'm out of sunny beds in the yard. I'd like to try some Knockout Roses - everyone raves about them. But I still want to incorporate some tropicals too - a few hibiscus, some elephant ears, my allamanda shrub, some vines.
So any ideas on how I combine this mish-mash so it doesn't look like, well, a mish-mash?
2. Next project - my indoor grow room. Spare bedroom, about 9x11, west facing unshaded window so it gets HOT on sunny days. At the moment, I have a wall of cheap wood Ikea shelves, full of books and junk, boxes of more junk, a 400 watt HID light over a banquet table for the hibiscus, a wire shelf rack with fluorescent shop lights in front of the window for the smaller plants, seedlings, buckets of tropical waterlilies. Also a 150 watt clamp on wonderlite.
This room is always a dumping ground for junk that has no home, but assuming I get it dejunked, how can I make it look like a tropical island retreat on the cheap and still keep my grow lights? I bought some palm tree sheets and was going to put them on a line in front of the bookcases to hide the crap. I'd like a nice wicker reading chair. I need to replace the carpet - maybe sheet vinyl? Something fairly water-resistant, but I need to watch the budget. Is there anyway I can rip out the carpet and do something crafty like paint and seal the floor? (Of course, I totally lack artistic talent, maybe this is a bad plan!) I'd also considered a photomural of the tropics - probably a Hawaiian beach scene, but I think the sun and grow lights would bleach it out so fast it would be a waste. I've looked at the cheesy party decorations (plastic luau wall thingies from Oriental Trading Company) but I'd like something just a bit more elegant, but like I said, cheap, cuz this is a room for me and my plants, no one else!
I'd also like an indoor pond but need to watch the weight, since it's on the upper floor and we have barely-up-to-building-code plywood subfloors. At the moment I overwinter my tropical waterlilies in a bunch of three to five gallon buckets - is there one larger, shallow thing I could use that wouldn't weigh too much and would look better, or should I get an aquarium with lights and maybe a couple small fish instead (also not cheap).
Just trolling for ideas - brainstorm away! Thanks so much!
Sheila
