Landscaping Ideas for a Patio Apartment

Plants on the Furniture

• Use every square inch of a small patio in unconventional ways. Set soaked floral moss down the center of the patio table in baking trays. Insert a votive tray in the middle of the moss and plant small succulents, sedum or violas in each votive candle holder. Use a waterproof tray on top of a patio "sideboard." Plant the tray with a series of annuals or delicate vines that will spill over the sides and down the cabinet. Use the cabinet interior to store dining supplies or gardening tools. Sink a piece of PVC pipe in the center of a huge glazed strawberry pot, sitting on a wheeled base. Fill the pot with a mesh screen, a layer of gravel or stones, and very light planting soil. Tuck plants in the side openings and on top, around the pipe. Slip a patio umbrella in the pipe and move the planter to catch the sun or deliver some shade.

Pergola Patio

• Whether your patio is adjacent to an emerald green lawn or it's perched, balcony-like, several stories above the ground, a pergola can turn it into an enchanted bower. Pergolas are open, overhead structures, like arches but generally more substantial, that you can leave unplanted or cover with climbing vines. They're often constructed of weather-resistant wood such as cedar, and may be large enough to shelter a patio dining table. A pergola on the patio might have large ceramic pots at either end, planted with seasonal climbing vines to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Try honeysuckle, clematis and morning glory for beautiful flowers. Plant wisteria or lilac if the patio can handle extra weight. The flowers and foliage make spring and summer a delight, and the skeleton of twisted woody branches is a sculpture in winter.

Eco-Friendly "Used" Patio

• Create a path leading up to your patio, or lay the floor of the patio itself, with urbanite. Urbanite is broken up, used concrete that's set down just like concrete or stone pavers. The irregular, durable pieces may be stained, laid and edged with green groundcover such as Irish moss. Incorporate the pieces into a design along with reclaimed slate or other stone or vintage brick. Alternatively, turn them into steps from a raised patio down to a garden, or mortar the pieces to make a patio barbeque. Try staining some of the concrete purple and some turquoise for a variegated Southwest patio. Stain the concrete to match existing bluestone or another surface and edge an existing patio to expand it, adding a path to the garden if the apartment is on the ground floor.

Particular Planters

• Special pots designed for particular plants allow you to maximize garden yield on a small patio. Try a strawberry pot, for strawberries of course, but also useful for planting herbs. Tuck an herb seedling or plug plant in each opening just as you would with strawberry plants. Upside-down tomato planters let you hang the container, insert the plant roots up, and water as the tomato grows out of the bottom of the planter, exposing the foliage, flowers and ripening tomatoes to air and light. A potato pot takes plants at the top and has a trap door at the bottom that opens so you can harvest the potatoes without disturbing the growing plants.