I also don't have a balcony, but a screened in porch with containers. Had a pretty prolific cucumber plant going on this spring:

This is our "pet" anole, Larry the Lounge Lizard. He pretty much hangs out every morning soaking up the sun on "his" lounge chair. ;)

Glad you enjoyed, tempus. Life is good!

This little guy on a Begonia leaf was SO SMALL!!

Yeah, I've switched over to colorful/interesting foliage because flowers hate me. ;)

Denise, I love SP vine also and have it all over the yard but just not so much on the porch but lately it's growing so much in the yard that I've had plenty to snip and start new pots of it for the porch too. I have some flowers in the yard, mostly nectar plants for the butterflies and hummers, but traditional perennial gardening kind of bores me, waiting all year for plain green lumps and bumps to finally do their thing. Coleus is pretty from the day you "plant" it until the frost zaps it. No comparison, IMO.

Dreambee, I can see we're of like minds, I see your charcoal grill!

I keep moving stuff around, here's some shots from outside the porch looking toward it...

A lot of the stuff on the steps when this pic was taken are usually up in the shade but I put them out there to get rained on.

Here's some fairly new attempts to "decorate" the porch with SPV. You can't see it but I've got some fishing line around the inside at the top and around the outer support posts. As it gets long enough I plan to tuck/loop it around the fishing line. Not sure if that's apparent from these meager beginnings, but it didn't occur to me to do any sooner...

Put this together about a month ago:

Just did this the other day, hope it's full enough to keep mosquitoes out:

A bunch of little cuttings in water, and the spray bottle which I use on ME, trying to stay cool enough to spend some time out there:

Here are our front steps:

A little section of the driveway:

And just for fun---our refrigerator garden with a single airplant:

May I ask, what is the plant in the middle, 3rd pic up from the bottom? Kinda looks like a standing-up-straight fern. Also curious about the plant with the tiny, round, almost-all-white leaves - is that Alternanthera versicolor 'Snowball'? I have a very short Alternanthera with pinkish leaves called "Joseph's coat." Wish the stores would bring in more of these, I think there's a bunch of them out there. They maintain their colors better in full sun than the Coleus I've tried.

Judging from the palm trees in the landscape, it looks like you're somewhere warm. Which way does your balcony face? It's a nice size one! You can use the GardenWeb zone finder (type your ZIP code in the box then hit enter.) If you include your zone (and also preferably your state abbreviation,) it will show up next to your name automatically when you post on GW forums.

Rachelthepoet - you made me homesick for the iris & daylilys I left in Michigan. I had 17 varieties of daylilys when I sold that house.

jmo - like purpleinopp, I'm also wondering what is that weird (but way cool) plant?

I think we can all agree our porches/balconies are a continual work in progress. I look at pictures I took in spring and somehow all my planters seem to have moved around by themselves...

Keep the pictures coming, folks.

The small plant with almost white leaves is called a snowbush (breynia disticha). It retains its white color and brightens up any garden.

About the alterbanthera; I have actually been posting on here because I needed to find out what it was called. Someone mentioned that it could be an alteranthera. I'm still trying to find out information on it, others have mentioned that it could be a sand cherry among other names.

I live in Miami, Florida, inland close to the everglades. I am in zone 10, which limits me quite a bit actually. I'm originally from Colombia but I was raised in Chicago so I miss maples, willows, etc, things that I would probably not be able to grow down here.

My "garden" is still a work in process. I need to buy pots and things to decorate with. My Norfolk pine started it all, it is around 4 years old if not more. Thanks!

I;m reserving the other side for a dwarf Japanese maple I'm going to try and grow. I don't know how well that will go though, the problem would be the lack of chill hours yearly.

I love the pictures on here, keep them commming! Thanks

The Brenia is so pretty! Looks just like the Alternanthera I had:

Denise, totally agree about "work in progress!" My honey made me a cool bench/table thing for the porch so I rearranged a lot of stuff. I should take a pic of it. I'm sure I will soon, when I get it "like I like it," for a minute.

Here's a shot in the dark... There's not a wall there, it was just raining really hard!

Might as well add a pic while I'm here, when I sit here, people walking by don't notice me usually.

Do I see a nice, tall Sansevieria sticking up behind the chair? Are the pink flowers Cyclamen?

Excellent!

I actually feel more challenged because there is no railing to prevent the wind from sometimes sending plants plummeting about 3 feet off the edge. I've thought of putting fishing line around, a few inches up, but am afraid human or canine will forget it's there & do a header off of there. I'm a spaz enough to do it myself within an hour of putting it up. Maybe next spring I'll put a proper wooden rail up.

I move stuff almost daily too. The sun keeps reaching farther and farther under the porch roof.

LOVE your new pic! Beautiful display, especially pretty Caladiums. Are those Amaryllis leaves to the far right?

The jungle has moved inside, and it definitely frosted. Hardly room to walk around in here. The porch looks HUGE now, just a table and chairs out there. Is it spring yet!

I sowed aquillegia and peony poppy seeds with other violets as well. I will add nasturtiums and various impatiens/balsam in the spring with some other anuals like morning glories and moonvines. I'm eying some more strawberries, herbs, and scented geraniums. I, naturally, have no room for these things.

For great leaves in that low light, you might also like sweet potato vine, more Coleus, Begonias, Syngonium, Tradescantia zebrina and spathacea, Cordyline fruticosa... Looking at your pics again, I think I see a big Monstera near the door (in the pic looking at the other building from inside your place.) THOSE are cool leaves!

I think the leaves on my plants will look better this next season. They were brown and partially killed from shipping stress-- it was over 100 when they were all shipped and they cooked in boxes. In the doorway I do have my giant philodendron-- P. bipinnatifidum. It's about 6ft across and 5ft tall. It does well there in the living room, and that to me is a decent indication of my light. It only gets light from outside of any decent measure, and it's grown in size since it has been there.I thought about putting it out on the balcony, but then I got too many other interesting things to really go along with that idea :P Plus moving it sucks.

I am not happy with my sempervivums. They are doing fine and even multiplying, but I think I may move them elsewhere and tuck them into planters. This would give me a whole new empty pot to be filled with something different. I may put my tuberous begonias in there instead of putting them in my hanging baskets. Or maybe I'll put an alpine strawberry in there. That sounds even better!