angrboda's Shady Cat Oasis garden

This is an odd patio created by an addition to the house, which placed a wall in front of a large window that at one time looked out on the backyard. The owners of the house then created a little enclosed porch space, about 6′ × 9′. The patio gets limited light, but because one whole wall of the patio is a window, the light it does get is strengthened by the reflection. When we moved in, the previous occupants had left a bunch of succulents on the porch, most of which we moved to the front porch area. Now we have placed a shade cloth over the top – you can see the edge of it in one of the photos.

This main picture is of the begonias we grew in summer 2006. They did fine for a while, but eventually the leaves were burned (it was also a very hot summer that year) – this was before the shade cloth. This was my first experience growing begonias or anything besides the occasional houseplant.

In 2007, we went a little crazy with the plants, adding a couple of big fuschias, and the last two photos documents that (poorly). We reorganized it shortly thereafter (it kinda felt like the plants were taking over the living room all pressed up against the window like that.) But we forgot to take pictures.

As to the “cat oasis” part of the garden, this is mostly in our imagination. When we first rented this house, we envisioned our cats (Buster & Fidda) lounging about on the porch. Mostly they don’t – cats are contrary that way. But sometimes they lurk about – as in the last pre-begonia photo of Fidda sitting serenely in one of the plants.

I’ll post pictures of this year’s garden in the journal soon.