I moved into a Philadelphia row home in January. The place was newly refurbished, including the back patio, so there is a roughly 12 ft by 12 ft lot of bare earth in the back yard (I will post up pictures soon). I also have some patio, and walkway space as well as some sidewalk space out front that could make a good place for containers.
Here's the catch...
...because of the nature of my work (grant-funded), I'm not sure if I'll be living here come July.
For that reason, I don't want to grow annuals this season. I'm not really concerned with growing edibles for that matter (not that I'm excluding any edibles). What I want is biomass in the city. I was green space and I would like to do my tiny bit to clean the air.
What are some perennials that are low cost, hardy, quickly establish, and grow quickly? I would like to plant things that stand a good chance at surviving if I can't nurture them past the end of June; for that matter, the plants might not receive any attention after I leave (although I hope I may inspire my roommates, who are staying, to take an interest in this stuff). I guess they should also be at least somewhat aesthetically pleasing to decrease the likelihood that future tenants will remove them in favor of sod.
Any ideas would be appreciated!
