i understand your frutstration, as I have always kept plants on my balconies, patios, and porches of apartments. You would think the landlord would appreciate a tenant who respects his property enough to enhance it with plants and flowers! Anyway, if you patio is shaded, try impatiens (family name Balsamineaceae)and begonias. Ferns and hostas are also great choices for greenery. You mentioned ivy. Make sure that the ivy is healthy and isn't infested with insects or other disease. I would spray it with insecticidal soap just to be safe, as you don't want the ivy to transmit any problems to your new plants. Make sure your plant containers have drainage holes and use good quality potting soil. Water a couple of times week or as needed. Your local nurseries will carry seasonal plants; but not much grows in winter time except evergreens. Good luck!

For water garden, try Colocasia, creeping jenny (will grow in water easily-very nice hanging over sides of pot), aquatic canna, cardinal flower; water lettuce, water hyacinth, parrot's feather; water lilly, duckweed...some of them multiply very fast, some are very tall, so check ahead. There is many, many more. They could be in soil held by special pots for using in water, or you can go frugal & use stocking instead of pot (works very well). Some don't need any soil, they just float. If I was doing a water garden, I think I would use 'bubler', or even a 'fogger'...Depends how wild you want to go. You can have any plant in cachepot, since you are planting in another pot & using glazed ceramic for decor. I would make sure there is some space between planted pot & decorative pot for good air circulation, and that it is raised off the bottom so it will not sit in water that may/will drain out. Use a brick or some large rocks to raise it. Or a 'feet' made for raising planters off ground.

I make my own by drilling 3 or 4 holes evenly spaced along the top of a plastic pot, then use wire to make the hanger. The pots cost .50-$1.00 each, the wire I use is on a roll. I can't remember what it cost. Makes pretty cheap hanging pots. Tami

Yes, bird feeders are a big attraction to bears and they will get more and more invasive. You essentially can feed the wildlife and have all the wildlife around or stop feeding them and get rid of them eventually. You cannot pick and choose which ones you want around unless you want to kill the bears. When the bears don't get enough food from your feeders they'll start tearing into other things and they'll get more and more bold. If you have garbage cans out, they'll be ripped open. Leave groceries in the car and it'll likely be opened. And if they're in a shed or garage, don't be surprised if eventually they try getting in there. Bears have also been known to become so desperate for food they actually go into houses and grocery stores. Once they have found a source of food and they'll keep coming back. Unless you want to kill the bear you need to dissuade it from coming around. As long as there's food, they'll keep coming back regularly. This has other impacts too. They probably aren't going to get the nutrition they need just from the bird food - it's not formulated for bears and they won't forage as much for natural foods. Worse yet it starts to essentially tame the bears and that's not good. The impact from that can be quite dangerous to people and animals, including their own cubs. We talked about this in the thread about the bear place taming bears so I won't duplicate it here. Suffice to say that it's cute to hand feed wild animals and put ribbons on them but that doesn't domesticate them like a dog or cat. As for woodpeckers, here they make perfectly round holes. I'd go with the wrap with plastic and see if that works. Could be a smell in it that is attracting them. Maybe try hanging some mothballs or wipe it with ammonia, vinegar or bleach. Not sure if that would help or not. Test it though for any affect to the container.