A dear friend of mine, a few decades older than I, was a consummate gardener. He and his lovely wife had retired to a small rural town in northern California.

Although their house was seated on a steep hillside, he created broad terraced garden beds, planted fruit bearing trees, perennial and native plants to woo the bees and butterflies. It was very beautiful, and he tended it all by himself. It was his joy.

A decade or so on, they both agreed that the property required too much time and care, so they reluctantly sold their house and beautiful garden and moved to a lovely retirement community nearby.

 

They enjoyed their new more streamlined existence, but having no garden was a tremendous adjustment for them.

 

Instead of two acres of land, they had a  paved front entrance with a small sunny deck, a shaded back patio, and no earth to plant in.

I suggested that we recreate their garden, scaled back of course, in ceramic containers and pots filled to the brim with their favorite sun loving perennials for the deck, some choice flowering shade perennials and ferns for potting on the back patio, and several dwarf Citrus trees in large ceramic pots for the sunny front entrance.

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As they both loved to cook, we also created an indoor herb garden, so that they could enjoy snipping parsley, basil, rosemary and thyme from hand~painted terracotta pots in their sunny kitchen windows.

All in all, this was a lovely, low care and economical solution. And joy was restored!