I wish I knew where to get a low-cost sheet of metal

Cutting back the contents of the driveway crop tanks (vegetables in one and flower stems grown for vases in the other) I got to thinking how nice it would be to use one of them as a taboret, a table or bench on which to display some of my containers over the winter. They're right by our backdoor and where I park—a highly visible spot. 

(photo from Sept 13th, before cutback and the Great Migration, it doesn't look like this now)

Something along the lines of how I use this metal bench...

(also from Sept 13th)

I found myself thinking, "I wish I knew somewhere I could get an inexpensive piece of metal I could put over the top of the stock tank." Gosh, where would I get something like that!? Duh... maybe where I've purchased most of the metal pieces I'm already using around the garden? 

(also from Sept 13th)

Off to the BBC Steel scrapyard I went. Here's what I came home with...

Because I didn't want to risk rusty stains on the tank's galvanized metal I purchased a section of plastic tubing at a hardware store and cut it to fit over the rim of the tank wherever the two metals made contact.

Like this...

I liked the Russelia equisetiformis (firecracker plant) planted in the tank and it spent last winter in the same place (except for few days we had below freezing, when I pulled it and protected it), so I left it and worked the metal pieces around it. I covered the soil with moss I picked up on a recent adventure into the wilderness.

It's much nicer to see fuzzy green than brown soil.

Then it was time to bring in some container plantings...

What luck this container slipped right into one of the cut-outs.

I decided to fill this display space with my Aeonium collection. A few years ago Daniel Sparler encouraged me to let these winter-growing succulents stay outdoors on all but the coldest days (he details that approach here) and my plants have responded favorably to that treatment.

Having them right by the back door will make it easy to grab them if temperatures dip. 

I put this particular planting together early last July, using some 2" "plant poppers" (Aeonium arboreum 'Velour' and A. hybrid 'Kiwi') from Little Prince of Oregon Nursery. They've exploded in size...

Being a plant shadow connoisseur I'm loving the patterns these plants make on the side of the house.

The Aeonium aren't the only plants that have moved into this area, see that large plant on the far right?

It's Nerium oleander ‘Hardy Red’ and I got it (and its nice terracotta pot) from Jerry at our last Garden Blogger's plant swap. The Xera Plants listing says: "Full, HOT sun in a protected location. Best against a south or west facing wall- out of subfreezing east wind." That's exactly where it is here, in a corner that faces both south and west. Obviously a plant in a container loses a Hardiness Zone though, so I might end up schlepping it elsewhere if we get a cold snap.

I'm having a lot of fun with this area, and keep making changes, adding and subtracting things.

 Those changes aren't the only ones I've done in the drive though, I also replaced the plants and containers on the front of the garage.

It's a seasonal thing, the metal (they're clamp-on lamp shades) has excellent drainage and can withstand a freeze, where as the pottery that hangs there in the warm months will crack if the soil freezes and expands (ask me how I know).

These Mangaves aren't the hardiest choice for planting, but I had them kicking around (gifts from the grower) and I figured why not try them?

If temperatures really plummet I can always pull them and put them somewhere warmer for a few days.

So... that's my latest change-up here.

Next up, we need to put the walls up on the Shade Pavilion Greenhouse. But that's a task for another day...

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