Pushing the Envelope

Today I raided the local garden center and started planting annuals in pots on my deck. This is pushing the envelope a bit around here. And here is just southwest of Chicago. Guess I'll have to be a slave to the weather reports from now on, watching for frost warnings. I went with my usual tried and true favorites: petunias, allysum, impatiens, pinks, lobelia and the odd snapdragon.
I like low maintenance plants.
I'm also beginning to become a bit lazy. This means I've stocked a couple of pots with some odd perennials so I just have to add a bit of color come springtime. This year one pot will contain Blue Spruce Sedum, Thyme, snapdragons and a red petunia. The other, much more ambitious pot is a blend of "Oriental Limelight" artemisia, cypress spurge, gardener's garters and perillia. Just a bit of something for a very hot, dry area that needs a bit of sprucing up.