on my deck – summer 2016

Last year was my first year in this apartment with it’s cozy little second floor porch. When the weather warmed up, I moved my plants that weren’t looking so hot outside since my office was getting crowded. Much to my surprise, they thrived. After that I ended up moving the rest of my plants outside as well. Everything flourished! On top of that I learned to propagate. It’s safe to say, last year was a good year for me as a gardener. I grew a lot of plants, and I learned a lot about those plants.

Ohio winters are cold, duh!, so all my plants had to come in for the year when the temperatures started to drop again. Almost everything survived the season but they were definitely suffering the consequences of less light. A lot of them had grown dull and leggy. I was anxiously awaiting the day I could trim everything back, pluck off leaves for propagation, and get my plants their color back.

Well, summer weather has officially hit here in Cleveland. With temperatures in the 80’s, this is the perfect weather for my plants. I finally kinda sorta organized my little collection and thought it’d be fun to share some photos of them at the beginning of the season. Plants change so drastically over a season but it happens so slowly that if you’re checking them every single day you might not notice. That’s the number one reason I take so many photos of my plants. I mean, other than the fact that they’re gorgeous. It’s encouraging to be able to compare two photos and see how big they’re getting. So here’s what they’re starting off June looking like…

Right after I took everything outside we got a few big rains which I’m pretty sure killed a handful of the leaves I had laid out to propagate. It’s a bummer but not all that big of a deal considering how many others I have growing. I seriously have more leaves than I can shake a stick at. If you’re in the CLE area and would like to trade some babies, by all means holler! We can get coffee and swap succulents!

Other than that, in the short amount of time they’ve been outside everything seems to be really perking up. They LOVE the sunshine and I sure love the variety of colors I’ve got going on out there. I kind of wish I had a better way to display everything other than on my only table and a side table but since I’m hoping *fingers crossed so hard* to move before summer’s end I don’t really want to invest in anything I might not be able to use in another apartment. Things will get even more out of hand once some of my babies get a little larger too. Oh well, it’s not going to stop me from growing even more plants, and purchasing interesting ones I stumble upon.

Last year I shared a similarly title post, on the deck, with photos of what I had growing at the time. You can spot a lot of the same plants from that post in this one, although many of the succulents are unrecognizable due to me stealing their leaves to grow more plants. One in particular I find interesting is the big cactus. I didn’t realize just how much that thing had grown! I’m considering transplanting it to it’s own pot since it’s doing SO well.

Other than all these crazy plants, I’m also growing some herbs which are gosh darn life changing. Fresh basil is the bomb dot com. I’m basically putting it on everything I cook. It’s so delicious and I swear food tastes twice as good when you know that something you grew yourself is in it. What are you guys growing this year?

I’m sure I’ll be back next month, or sooner, with an update on these guys. Hope you’re prepared for a summer of succulent photos!
xoxo

See here for tips on propagating succulents.
To see more photos of my plant collection browse the “plants” tag or follow me on instagram. I recently started using the hashtag #kaylahheartsplants.
See my tips for house plants here, and tips for healthy succulents here.