A Small Screened Porch Garden – Let’s Go Big With Alocasia!
Here at the house, I have a small screened porch and I am sitting outside there drinking my morning coffee. It’s about 5am and I am hit with a wonderful idea! I guess I am letting it go to waste if I don’t fill it with plants, right? So I have decided, along with my daughter, that we must work on filling it up with all kinds of plants. And if we need to purchase more, we will be forced to go plant shopping again. It is our duty. Hah, hah!
My husband is so enthusiastic about my great idea. He can hardly contain himself!
This screened porch faces the east, so it gets morning sun and doesn’t really get strong sun since by noon, at that point, the sun overhead begins to be blocked by the rest of the house. Screening is along one wall and the rest of the porch meets with the sides of the house and the living room windows. I feel that a lot of plants will fit the sunlight needs of this space. So we are going ahead, as it warms up, and my daughter and I will begin to bring on the plants!
Our first plant will be two jumbo Alocasia or two Elephant Ears. We purchased these at Sam’s Club for $10 a pair and picked up two large container pots at the same time. I filmed a Pot Shopping video and showed you those pots. Now it is time to plant them up.
My New Plant Room – Great Use For Small Screen Porch
In the video, I am easily planting these two big bulbs/corms of the Alocasia. I get really confused when I use the term Alocasia since I think it is hard to distinguish it from the Colocasia. Maybe it is just “what’s in a word?…” but I have to call them Elephant Ears most of the time because it gets so confusing.
If I understand correctly: When that arrow-shaped point wants to face upwards or horizontal in general, it is an Alocasia. But when the arrow point is going downward, it is a Colocasia. Or maybe these are interchangeable and names given are just all messed up. Who knows?
These huge bulbs should start making a lot of roots now and I hope to see a lot of shoots start up. I can protect them (hopefully) if we should have a frost, but they will get some protection from being inset into the brick house which seems to hold temperature higher than the outside.
I am including some ivy plants in both pots sort of as a ground cover or the “spiller” that we use in containers. It is Hedera helix “Francis Ivy” and I bought 3 containers to add. I hope they get really thick and “spill” well.
Hanging plants will be great for this area and I already have some downstairs that I will relocate up here. I am keeping busy repotting a lot of hypertufa plants which can come up also. I could really get to enjoy having these all right outside my bedroom.
Hmmmm. That’s an idea. I am sure I can find some room for plants in my bedroom. My husband is going to have an anxiety attack! Thanks for reading!