This morning, I did a little annual maintenance on my container garden. I don't water more than maybe every month during the dry season. If we go out of town long enough to need a cat sitter, generally the plants get watered then too.
So, if you want to live at my house, you've got to be drought-tolerant. I will relocate plants if they're obviously sunburnt or otherwise not getting the right light, and I've been known to transplant when a container is outgrown. That's basically it.
My husband, were he the sort of soul who leaves a comment, would want you to know that my approach leads to one of two extremes, neither of which is his favorite. There's "plants that took over the world" and "dead/dying/last chance corner" plants.
We had sort of a forest of spider plants on a table on the front porch. They're growing in old pots from plants that were not hardy enough for my no-nonsense gardening. Same soil and all. Some of the pots got basically zero water in the rain, some were saturated. It wasn't much to look at, but the plants are no trouble at all.
Anyway, I cut each pot from its neighbors and moved the whole operation to the back porch. Our back porch is actually more visible from the road than the front is, but the spider plants don't look nearly as ridiculous on it as they did on the table.
Then I pruned some containers of succulents. I need to buy some fillers for those and one is in a pot that doesn't drain. It's been in there for years. Today I dealt with the standing water by pouring it over those spider plants I moved.
At some point I'm gonna move it to a more appropriate pot and it will probably reward me by growing into a lot more plant than I wanted. Or dying. I planted some cuttings (read: pieces that broke off and I found on the ground) in another pot and they're fine, so we're good either way.
Then I mulched the last few other plants standing and started day dreaming about what I'm going to try next. Maybe some hostas? I've got partial shade in front, full shade in the "yard" and full sun in the back. Zone 9. Has to be container appropriate and neglect/drought tolerant. I have a strong preference for perennials. Ideally, evergreen perennials.
In the yard, I could plant in the dirt. It's full shade. And mostly used by the dog. A little slope and a little flat. I'm open to suggestion.
I've got an orchid in the bathroom that needs my attention and an aloe plant in the kitchen that wants to be transpotted and maybe divided. I think the orchid needs friends. I'm considering those situations too.
(My bathroom is hot and bright and humid and has enormously high ceilings. I want to turn it into some kind of tropical wonderland, but so far it's just the one orchid that's so root bound I'm starting to worry about it.)