It's proof you don't need land to have a garden with flowers in bloom every day of the year. Leslie plants her garden in a dozen or more variously shaped containers on the second-floor balcony of her Charlotte condominium, off Park Road. In the shadier zone, Swedish ivy and other tropical foliage plants spend the summer. Baskets hang from the roof edge. That wonderful beneficial insect, the praying mantis, visits.
Grasshoppers sometimes show up.
So do hummingbirds. Even purple finches nest in her hanging baskets. Upon moving to her condominium, she slowly transformed the small, bare balcony into the sylvan sight that catches your eye as you walk through the front door. Pansies, the terrific choice for gardeners whether they have a single pot at the back door or great stretches of land, were her first effort. Planted in pots, they bloomed beautifully fall though spring on her balcony's sunny western exposure.