One of the main impetus for putting in a spigot out front was my stoop. Come the spring & summer, I enjoy sprucing up the stoop with flowers. It all started in 2010 when my mom decided the large planter on the sidewalk needed some flowers. Mom brought up a giant bag of soil & a bunch of flowers and made it look like someone living here cares.

It was a beautiful amalgamation of colors & textures.

2011 I had no plan for what I wanted the stoop to look like, so I just went to the nursery and bought whatever I liked.

It turned out ok but not spectacular. Photo above is the day it was planted and below was on Sept. 3, 2011.

It was a mix of coleus, begonias, petunias, sweet potato vine, & something else but I can’t remember what it’s called (the twiggy, tall purple ones). Turns out I really like coleus. Last year I didn’t know to pinch it off, so it got leggy instead of bushy.

{pots on the stoop}

{May 2011}

2011 was the first year I tried window boxes and I don’t think they did so well. I blame the lack of a spigot & the utter lack of any moisture retention by the coconut liners.

{Sept. 2011}

I learned the petunias were ok, as long as I remembered to deadhead them. The begonias & vines grew nicely but I didn’t care for the twiggy, tall purple ones. Everything would have looked better if I watered them more.

Last year’s flowers felt scattered & random with no cohesive look. For 2012, I decided to do all coleus & sweet potato vine. Experience says both do well on my stoop and this year seems to be no different.

I also bought a new planter at IKEA. Found it in their AS IS section for $25. It has a small dent in the top ring but, with that part to the back and a mound of sweet potato vine growing over it, you would never know.

The window boxes seem to be doing better this year. I lined the insides with plastic before filling them with dirt, so they’re retaining moisture better.

The whole front of the house needs attention. Peeling paint and rotting wood are everywhere but at least there are flowers.

The older planter that came with the house has a rather massive crack in it. It’s currently held together with wire ties & a plastic insert to keep the dirt in. The tomato plant I have in it seems to be doing alright.

It’s even got a tomato!

So that’s the stoop. Flowers to distract from the peeling, rotting, crumbling, disintegrating, flaking mess.

What have you planted? Any flowers I should try next year? You a big coleus fan too?