Rooftop Flower Garden Grown All In Containers | July Garden Tour

Here is what my back deck garden looks like in early June! There is still a lot of planting to be done on this deck and I think some plants are dying.

2024 Garden Tours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz2eE6Aek2I&list=PL-x6xtohdIXZVvgBxMd6Lmy3yUK5LcnpF

Hydrangea video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnVWYNbHD7E

~ Where Things Are From ~
** Any Amazon links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission when you click on these links to purchase products. All products, except for the Aquapots, were purchased with my own money.

Zero G flexible hose: https://urlgeni.us/amzn/zero-G
Gronomics elevated beds (front deck): https://gronomics.com/all-elevated-garden-beds/
Charming Bench Company elevated beds (back deck): https://thecharmingbenchcompany.com/products/wood-country-rectangular-cedar-planter-tl-006-tl-007-tl-008-tl-009
30-gallon grow bags: https://amzn.to/3C4tvZU
7-gallon black grow bags: https://parkseed.com/smart-pot-fabric-planters/c/smart-pots/
5 and 7 gallon beige grow bags: https://amzn.to/3qgiWjR
Herb rack: https://www.gardeners.com/buy/lattice-rectangular-tiered-plant-stand/8596373.html
Two tiered plant stands: https://amzn.to/3Vk1WXx
Flower cart: https://amzn.to/43unbGU
White vertical planter with buckets: https://amzn.to/3UVp1j6
Aquapot Lite: https://www.provenwinners.com/category/store/aquapots-proven-winners-0
Wheels for 30-gallon grow bags: https://amzn.to/3qfRxib
Caddy for smaller plants: https://amzn.to/3WIhjra
ProvenWinners drip irrigation: https://www.provenwinners.com/waterwise
Carpathen drip irrigation: https://amzn.to/3OLiCUk
Table and chairs: old from Wayfair
Couch and coffee table: Hampton Bay collection from Home Depot

For daily plant updates, follow me on Instagram @chicagogardener

hey everyone so it is time for the back deck July Garden Tour so I showed you the front deck in the last video so now I’m going to take you around the back deck and I don’t want to pick favorites but I think this is my favorite deck this year so this is what I consider my more formal Garden compared to the front and that’s mainly because I don’t have any vegetables out here it’s just all flowers I think some of them are technically edible but I don’t plan to eat any of them and then I did try to stick to a color scheme the color scheme was pink orange purple and white some other colors snuck their way in but I did try to be a bit more organized and coordinated on this deck and I just I love how it turned out and this deck was completely empty two years ago I think I got the raised beds in the fall of 2022 but didn’t really plant them up until 2023 because I was gardening on the front deck since 2020 and I said to myself I wasn’t going to take over all of the outdoor space and then I did now my husband does appreciate it he likes being out here amongst the flowers so I love how this turned out and I feel like this is just well this is the place where I spend the most time so the couch is out here that’s usually where I start my mornings or I end the days and it just makes me so happy so this deck is a very similar size to the front it is technically 18 by1 19 Square ft but we do have the air conditioning units which take up some space so in terms of like usable space for the Garden it is a little bit smaller this does face the East so we get the morning sun it is still full sun it is still at least I think it’s maybe 7 to 8 hours now that the days are as long as they are of full Morning Sun and then I would say maybe around noon these plants over here stop getting sun which is why my hydranges which I will show you they can handle the full sun here they cannot handle the full sun on the front deck which I found out after frying way too many of them so with that let me take you around and I will show you how my back deck Garden is looking this July I’ll start by doing a sweep here of the back deck I love how this is turning out and I know there are still a few flowers that haven’t even bloomed yet but I’m already in love with just all of the color back here so for the tour I’m actually going to start with the hydranges over here so these are right by the door where I come out I had a video where I put this all together that has more information on the specific types so I will link that down below but all of these so I have let’s see I have nine hydranges over here and then three more so 12 hydranges total 11 of them are compact hydranges all of these back here are the compact varieties I’ll show you the one that’s not in just a second but the maximum mature size on some of these is 3T and then some I think only get to about a foot and a half so fantastic again for container Gardens or small spaces but let’s start with my current favorite hydrangea it has changed a little bit just depending on which one’s blooming like crazy and right now the wee bit innocent is what is blooming like crazy this has very light pink flowers this is one where acidifying the soil can change the color but I am not dealing with any of that I like to be as lazy as possible in the garden the Fire Light tidbit here this one has not bloomed yet and I actually don’t know I’m trying to see if I see any flower buds I’m not sure that I do so I don’t know if this one’s going to flower but maybe it will we’ll see but everything else I think is flowering we have the Let’s Dance arba which I have two of these so that’s one there and then over here is the tough stuff top fun so this one’s just starting to open up so let’s dance arba is definitely a brighter pink compared to the wee bit innocent and I love that contrast of Pinks this one does like it’s also going to be pink but I believe this one is a mountain Hy Ranger or a hybrid with a mountain so the flowers are going to look a little bit different on this one compared to these that are more ball likee so sweeping over here then this is the tough stuff aha so this is what the tough stuff top fun is kind of going to look like as far as the blooms a bit more open not in a tight ball and this one is blue I’ve had this one for either one or two years I’ve never acidified the soil and yet the flowers come out blue why I don’t know we’re going to go with it and see if they change this is the other one of the let’s dance arba in the back there and then this one was blooming like crazy what is the name on you this is the let’s dance sky view but the blooms have kind of died back CU we had a lot of heat that I didn’t really like and it’s starting to form some more buds but this one and that one are definitely having some issues with iron typically if you see something like this where it’s the dark green veining and the yellow leaves it’s an iron issue so I have been amending it and I swear every time I add iron it then rains when it’s not supposed to so I’m just going to keep adding iron until the leaves start to green back up then the final two over here we have Let’s Dance can do which is also that brighter pink color but the leaves are a little bit darker than the other varieties I have and then let’s Dan big band so this one hasn’t flowered yet but there are buds on it so I know that they’re coming now I’ll show you the other three hydranges that I have so I have two that are the same this one here and the other one on the end are the tiny quick fire hydranges that I got from the grand Garden Show two years ago now I think it was 2022 they were so small when I got them I think they were in like four inch containers and they did bloom last year they didn’t Bloom the first year but again they were super small and those have the white blooms that will eventually get a little bit of pink on them and then this is the one that is not a compact variety so this is Pinky Winky Prime I think the max height is like at least 6 feet so I mean it will stay smaller if I keep it in a container but ideally I’d like to find a place to give it more space so we’ll see if I can make that happen but these also have the white flowers and they’re starting to get that little hint of blush pink on them which I love and then between these two hydranges CU these are all these three hydranges are on Wheels so I kind of just move them around although I do like them kind of around the seating area but I also have here a summerific cookies and cream hibiscus this is again a perennial that was really small it’s not going to stay in this pot forever but it’s going to stay in this pot for now I don’t know if I expect any flowers this year but we’ll see but this one I think is Hardy down to Zone 4 but I am still going to overwinter it in the garage just to be safe then up on the table we have just a little pot here of the angel face Cascade pink angelonia I think I put two in here which I probably didn’t need to put two but I do like how it’s turned out and I originally wasn’t going to have something on the table because I do use this table a lot but I love having the pop of pink up here just something that also adds a little bit more vertical interest in the garden so now we will start here on the left so when I come out of the door from our home I have the HDE ranges and then we have this border and we will sweep around the entire deck again I have specific videos kind of on each section of my garden so I will link those down below for the back deck but here in these three containers which actually I realized so we had somebody come and fix or work on the air conditioning units so I think I actually swapped two of these but um I do have the angelonia in the center of each of these so there’s one angelon in the center of each of these boxes and then I have Bonas on either side of the angelonia in each of these but there are two different varieties of Bonas Bonas are one of the plants that have not enjoyed the 90° days back here so Bonia back here the impatients up front haven’t loved it the hydranges definitely did not like it I had to add shade to them with umbrellas so kind of figuring out what can handle the heat up here and what can’t and again this is the morning sun deck so it should be less intense but this Bonia here is the double Delight blush Rose Bonia it is more of like a pinky coraly flower and the leaves on it are a little bit more Bluey green so that’s what these two are that’s also what these two are which is why I know that I need to swap them with the last box over here so this should be in the center and this is the solenia Apple apricot Bonia and look at all those flowers these are definitely recovering so the 90° temperatures were maybe like a week or two ago and now I feel like they are slowly slowly recovering and starting to flower in front of those flower boxes we have the three perennials that I just recently planted up again all three of these are also compact varieties so first is the Illuminati Sparks Mack orange also didn’t really love the heat it does have some burnt leaves but is recovering no flowers yet but there were some buds that I’ve seen on here so hoping I get some soon then over here we have the scentlandia sweet Spire there were blooms on these I think you can see down there but they’ve kind of faded and I’ve never grown this plant before so let me know if they bloom again or not um if not I probably do need to clean this up a little bit but I still love the kind of like Whimsical growth habit of this I’m really excited about this plant then we have my wiell so this is the one that I think only gets to like one and a half to 2 feet wide at maturity and I’m so excited again no flowers yet we’ll see if it does bloom again this year or not but this is the bubbly wine yella and then last over here on this part of the Border we have the coconut appeal blackeyed Susan vine I’m growing one up front well two in the pot up front I think there’s two in the pot back here so four total but two pots of this and again I just I love the craziness of this growth I definitely need a larger cage I’m not sure what my long-term plan is going to be for this but so far I’m really loving how it’s turning out and this is on wheels too so I can easily move it around if necessary then coming around here here’s my bag of potting soil and my composter things are breaking down but I swear composting is the thing I forget about the most like I forget to turn it I forget to add water but so far things seem to be going well stepping back for a second to show you the back border I I love the backb last year I love it this year but I really do love every part of this Garden like every part is my favorite but because almost everything if not everything in the raised beds in the back were plants that I started from seed they did take longer to flower compared to the annuals like the super Tunas that I got you know sent to me or either from the garden center that already came with color on them so I’ve been so happy to see these start to bloom so on each side here I have an emerald green arbide it’s smaragd I think is how you pronounce it I just replaced Hol that were not cold enough or cold hearty enough I think they were only down to zone five but I think root rot was actually what took these out um these should hopefully be able to last outside I think they’re down to a zone three so we’ll see how that goes this year but let’s go ahead and start with the furthest left bed now if you’ve watched the front deck Garden Tour already which if not I’ll have that link down below as well I mentioned that I started certain varieties of gamina that didn’t seem to be the color that I got also got some colors that I have no idea where they came from so this is an example of that so in this bed I have two Gina plants when I planted them and I am sure that I didn’t get these mixed up and it was from the proper seed packet I did the qas rose here and qis salmon but if I come in closer you can see that what is supposed to be qis salmon is the same color as qis Rose and I’m assuming based on the color of the gam frina that this is actually qis Rose and not salmon because none of the G frina are salmon colored but again maybe this is just a completely different one I have no idea what it is but they are still pretty they definitely seem more like a rose color so that’s what I’m going to go with then in here I have the Autumn Blaze sosia from Flor I got seeds for these in a seed swamp so I’m super excited I don’t know if I gave that enough room but we will see I have in here a deep apricot quartet stock that one is no longer in bloom I’m going to cut it back but I’ll show you the one that’s in bloom in the middle bed in just a second then in here I have a status that has not bloomed yet again I have some blooming that look really pretty so I’ll show you those in a second and then I have two China asers which I believe these are the Kings siiz apricot asers and they are just starting to get some buds on them so we should see these blooming soon everything again back here is also blooming earlier than normal just like up front and then in the corners here we have my cupcake blush Cosmos which I am excited they’re blooming because last year I planted three in the same bed one of them bloomed first but was really small and then kind of died back the second one did kind of what this is doing which is ideal and then the third one got really large and barely bloomed at all it just kept growing larger same bed same environment don’t know why but all of the cosmos that I started this year do seem to be blooming how I’d prefer I will well maybe I’ll do no we’ll start with the dollia next so this Dalia is the auto thrill dollia you can see how tall this one is compared to the other Auto Ralia however the shorter one has a bloom and the tall one does not so it’s just always interesting to see what plants are going to do none of the dalas back here were overwintered in the garage so all of these were planted as tubers this spring on the front deck all of those were overwintered in the garage so any of these that seem to perform well I will do that exact same overwintering process coming over to the center bed and this is the one that’s making me really happy right now cuz I’m starting to see all of the colors coming together and I knew when I planted the stock it wouldn’t Bloom as long as the other plants but I still wanted to grow it cuz it’s pretty so on the corners I have the lavender lady gumina which is a really pretty purple color it’s almost coming across lighter and more pink on camera but is a little bit more blue in person and it’s definitely more vibrant I feel like than it’s coming across then I have two different types of status this is the status Seeker Rose and these are definitely more purple than I expected but I do think it was supposed to be a mix as well like I don’t think they were all supposed to be the same color but kind of a mix of Rose Shades and then I have the status Seeker pastel blue which is a more vibrant blue but I this one’s probably my favorite just because I feel like it’s the most unique color it’s definitely like a Periwinkle color and I am in love then we have this stock which again is on its way out but luckily this one held on long enough for the tour so this again is the Deep apricot quartet stock look how pretty that is and I know that you can Harvest this for bouquets but these I knew I wanted to leave in the garden um but the status the Gina those are cut and come again so I have been harvesting off of those already for either drying or making bouquets and then the China asers I have in the back I can’t remember off the top of my head but I think one of them is the haaster haen skin blue which I think is this one I’m pretty sure and then I think I did two of the Bonita shell pinks on the edges so all three of these are China asers two different varieties I can tell that the flowers are starting to form but it’ll probably still be like a week or two before they start to open up now before I head to this last bed which actually is a repeat of this bed but a mere image um but there are some things that are further along over there I will start with these pots in front uh this is kind of a mish mash I didn’t plan this at all a lot of these were kind of the extra plants that I had left over going into the extra pots that I had left over something I’ve fallen in love with that I didn’t know I would fall in love with are these lies I left them even though they’re kind of on their way out they were much more even vibrant pink than this but this is from Proven Winners bulb collection which I think I planted back in April it’s the bulb collection that’s all pink and these one smell amazing they were the first things I smelled every morning when I came outside again their scent is kind of faded now but they are so so pretty and then in the pot I put in here super tunia Vista Bubblegum and then a superb Pink Cashmere these were I mean the bubble gum is always one of my favorites every year year after year this was one of my favorites from last year with how it performed now I do think it’s kind of overcrowded in this pot but we’ll kind of see how it does this pot I’m loving how these colors are looking together so actually in the middle is a peie I got some peonies I’ve never done peonies before I got them I think in March I needed to put them somewhere I tossed them in pots there’s actually three there’s one there a second one there a third one in the center of that pot but I didn’t want to just have a peie that’s relatively small without flowers on it so I did put annuals in it are you supposed to is that good I don’t know but it’s not dead yet so it’s not hurting but in here I have up front I have in here one of my favorites again from last year but this is the pink lemonade is it magic pink lemonade or pink lemonade magic super Bells so pretty that’s one plant these are Bonas I got from the garden center that I don’t even think were labeled I think they just said Bonas which I find happens a lot so Bonia there Bonia there and then this was one of the purple candy Sun patients which again from the heat didn’t love it so much but now does seem to be in recovery so that’s what is in this pot coming over here I have another of the super beina Pink Cashmere but this time the Super tunia is the fuchsia supertunia Vista fuchsia right there and those are the only two things in that pot and I can tell that these are happier compared to the same pot um where I’ve also added the lies so they have a little bit more space here I can tell that they are growing a bit more vigorously in this pot here I have another of the the peanes and then this sun patient is the blush Orchid which I think is so so pretty it’s a very very light purple color and then in the front here is that same selenia apricot Bonia that I have in that border that I showed you so that’s what’s in that pot here this one is the exact same as the pot on the other side so the super tunia Vista fuchsia and then the super Bea Pink Cashmere this is the same pot as this one over here so all the same plants and then that last one over there is the exact same with the lies super Vista Bubblegum and then the super beina so these I really love how this border has turned out even though I think some plants I probably shoved just a bit too close together coming over here then so like I said this is the same Autos thrill Dalia but it is staying small they flowering I’ll take a small plant that has flowers on it we’ll see though cuz again since these are new this year I often get tubers that say they’re one thing and then end up being another so we’ll see what that turns into and then this last bed is a mirror image of that bed that was on the furthest left but we do have some things that are a bit further along so the status here is actually blooming this is the apricot status and I love this color so much and I didn’t I mean I guess I kind of color coordinated but I didn’t really know how it was going to look so this is the King app King size apricot China Aster and I love how this very very light apricot and this more kind of like Dusty apricot look together so I’m in love with that and then also with just the color of the leaves on the sosia I think this has turned out to be a really pretty combination and I do need to harvest some of that status soon um also again I have wait I just realized there is another China Aster opening and I this is definitely the haaster Hagen so maybe I did do an apricot and a Hagen in each of these so this one is a very very light blue I know it kind of looks white on camera it’s a very light bluish purple that was not open when I was out here earlier so I’m excited we have the cupcake blush Cosmos and then with the gamina another interesting thing so this was supposed to be sammon it’s that rose color what’s on the right was supposed to be Rose it is very very light pinky purple this is the one that I also had in my front raised bed so I have snow white that’s different that’s a pure white I don’t know what this is I didn’t order anything that looked like this I still really like it no idea what it is so I think that’s interesting uh we’ll kind of see how this does but I do plan to try to remember to save seeds this year I’m very bad at that um so that I can keep the colors that I like and have them for next year now we’ll start with this border so on top of this wall I have three containers of the super tunia Vista bubblegum again my favorites I did do one plant in each this year I think I did two in these last year and they definitely needed a bit more room so I only did one telling myself they would fill in and they have and then my plan always for this border here when I first planted it was to have it peeking over the couch because last year I planted plants back here that only got to like 2 feet tall and they got lost because you couldn’t see them and you really can’t see anything back there that’s not taller than the couch but now the flowers are starting to peek over and it is making me so happy so I’ll take you up close and show you what’s blooming already first of all every single plant is planted in the seven gallon bootstrap farmer grow bags they are brown I chose them cuz they would blend in and then they each have the Home Depot 19in cages so the planting was very similar across all of these all of the zenas that you see in here these are from the floret precious metals it’s a mix so I wasn’t sure what I was going to get it seems like right now I have mostly yellows and peaches and maybe there’s no I think all of them actually AR blueing now because there are four back here so that’s exciting to see them flowering and then each of the doll there are four four I think four different varieties of dollas three of which have opened up so again all the zenas are the Flor at precious metals this one is a very very very light yellow and it’s really pretty they kind of have like almost like an iridescent to them that I don’t think you can really see this stalia here is the Lilac time which I just recently harvested one of the blooms off of and we have another one here this is Fairway spur that hasn’t bloomed yet on this plant but there’s a second one that is blooming that I’ll show you in just a second another of the precious metals this one is definitely more orangey still very pale I think all of the colors in this collection were pale so this is a very pale orange I I swear it looks more yellow on camera but it’s definitely more orange in person then we have oh wait you know what I just realized this one is labeled as Auto thrill so I think the two dalas that are over here are the pen Hill watermelon which if I’m looking at the label that’s what they say so I should trust the label more than I trust my brain so those should be both pen Hill watermelon which is a very very light pink this one here should be Auto’s thrill which I think it kind of looks like it from the bud and that’s more of not like a bright pink but definitely like a a deeper pink then over here one of my favorites is the Thomas Edison Dalia it’s just this beautiful Rich purple color I was so excited when this first one started to open we have another of the precious metal Zenia I think this is the same one like the same type as the one I just showed you same variety cuz it’s that light orangish color this Dalia here is another Lil loock time that hasn’t opened yet and then this is a fairway spur that has opened and isn’t this pretty this one is also kind of well I don’t know it maybe it’s in its prime almost about to fade but I wanted to leave it on but it’s more of like orangey around the edges and then gets this really pretty pink in the center I love it I love it so much and then here I have the final of the precious metals here this one seems to be one of the lighter yellows however there is more of a tinge of pink on the outside petal so I don’t know if it is the same as the first one or not but I’m just I’m really excited to see how eaches these flowers looks um and then I have another cupcake blush Cosmos this one hasn’t flowered yet but we do have buds now we have this section and I know I said it’s hard for me to pick a favorite but I feel like this view just makes me the happiest because there is so much color when I got this bucket planter in either January or February I had like envisioned in my head what it could be and I feel like it’s even better than that so it makes me really happy I’ll go over the specific varieties I’m growing first but basically I have the bucket planter which in each is one annual so one annual P per planter I know that I’m going to have to prune those super Tunas behind it I have two morning glories which again are already out of control and it’s just early July so I need to get to pruning on those as well and then I have what used to hold my Beach Plum Tree that I think again got root rot and I pulled that and planted up my large pot here so let’s get in close and I’ll talk about the specific varieties in the largest pot here are six plants total three different varieties so two of each variety the sweet potato vine it’s I think it’s sweetheart or Sweet Caroline sweetheart lime is the name of it and I think it is so pretty especially mixed with the colors of the super tunia so supertunia Vista Bubblegum and supertunia Vista jazzberry and I wanted to see these all kind of intermingle and play together and that is exactly what is happening I think this pot is 24 inches in diameter maybe up to 30 but it’s definitely the largest single pot that’s not a raised bed now my bucket planter AKA nette um let’s start with this bottom row here so bottom row I have two of the super tunia Vista fuchsia so one here one here I have one of the purple candy Sun patients one of the Orchid blush Sun patients because this gets the morning sun like the first Sun of the day and then the afternoon it goes over the side of the house these did the best in the 95 Dee of all the sun patients that I had out here second row here we have two of the super tunia Vista Jaz berries and then we have another one of the selenia apricot Bonia there and one of the campfire marshmallow bidens this one is already getting taken over by the super Junia so I’m probably going to have to prune that but this is the only Bens I have back here all the other ones are up front on my flower cart then on the top row we have two of the superbells pink lemonade magic magic pink lemonade uh on the top there in the first and third bucket and then two varieties of gamina so gamina Carmine on the left and then this is the Snow White the pure white color gamina which is different than what I’m seeing in my raised bed so that’s what’s in my bucket planter and I think that’s everything that’s growing in my garden back here let’s do one more sweep from this angle just because looking at my garden here makes me so happy I do feel kind of bad for my front deck I love it still but there’s just something about a garden just full of flowers that makes me so happy so that is the garden tour for the back deck for July it just it looks so beautiful and there are still some things waiting to bloom so I can’t wait to see how they turn out and that’ll probably happen this month obviously I will update you in the videos here but down below I will link well link the front tour just so you can see that front deck and see how it’s doing and then I will also link down the previous months of both the front and the back deck but that is going to be everything for this video I’ll see you in the next one bye