Gardening can be a challenge regardless of your living situation. Farmers battle droughts, suburbanites combat rocky soils and apartment dwellers are space challenged.

It can be frustrating, indeed but I have two words for you . . . grow up!

Literally – I’m talking about growing vines!

Living in an old house in town, I’m space challenged. Definitely the highlight of the house is the spacious front porch – a dream to sit on in the rain but no place to dig up a garden bed. Obviously.

Luckily, I’ve always been fond of container gardening. The soil is just right, they’re easy to water and you can move them around to highlight something in particular.

And I have railing and posts that scream for scrambling vines, so I stick a few seeds in the containers on my porch to cover them. It’s always a show stopper.

They’re easy enough to grow but hard to find in the nurseries, so it just makes seed shopping all the more fun. My absolute favorite? The uncommonly planted hyacinth bean vine, which is stunning from flower to fruit – big leafy stems of purple flowers followed by shiny purple seed pods in the fall – it’s so great I almost hate to share my secret about it.

I’ve also planted morning glories with moonflower to have flowers all hours of the day. They’re a cinch to grow and fun to watch bloom, as the huge white moonflower opens at the same time every evening.

No place for a vine to climb? I doubt that! A simple trellis will suffice or bamboo stakes found in any garden center and some twine does the trick for a natural look. You can even grow your vines up tall sunflowers! No excuses!

Have some fun with your challenging spaces and grow up this season. It’s not too late – there’s a long summer ahead of us. And maybe giggle like a kid doing it. Happy climbing!