Park in on street parking and use your designated parking spot for container veggies. If the other dwellers won't poach them. Contact a local garden club to pair up with an older gardener who may have to be cutting back her pursuits but isn't ready to give up gardening all together. That's win/win. Maybe a local food bank is trying to get a gardener's donation initiative off the ground and needs help convincing local gardeners to ''plant an extra row'' for them. Or Habitat For Humanity might be interested in doing edible landscaping for some of their homes and people who have never gardened before and who might need help. Lots of ways to have green fingers if you really want. If none of those initiatives exist in your community, then initiate them yourself!

I won't bother with lattice, barrels are partially obscured from the street by fencing and if I put it up I would have to work around the lattice in order to turn the valves for water. If I can just make better use of collected water I'll be happy. We are at the end of our growing season so I should be cleaning up the garden and putting it to bed for the winter, just can't seem to get motivated. We had our first frost last week. Usually, our average early frost date is 1 November. I got almost no produce from garden this year, but there is always next year. Chookchook2 I've seen some of those decorative metal panels and they are gorgeous, sure hope your budget will allow you to get some before too long. Most of our state has been on fire for a good part of the summer. The closest is across the river from us and they have been battling it for almost a month. Some friends have had to evacuate repeatedly. We've only been concerned once, a small grass fire on our side of the river on a day we had wind gusts up to 65mph. Fortunately, it was put out quickly. Australia and New Zealand have both sent firefighters to help with the blazes. I can't begin to tell you how appreciative we are. The closest fire was fought for almost a week by local volunteers only as there were no other resources available. They were all on other fires. The Army National Guard (reserve troops) were called out to help with support duties and for the first time ever the federal Department of Natural Resources (DNR) asked for civilian volunteers to help with non firefighting tasks, cutting fire breaks, moving supplies etc.

Dwarf marigolds are easy to grow from seeds. Don't put in too many, they may all germinate! However, they do not grow all year. Summer is their favorite time of year. Put in sunny window and cover with saran wrap til they pop.

Looks like the palm tree look is working so I would blend that with some succulents maybe agave which can grow large and make great statement plants. Also stick with the stones.