DIY: hanging succulent baskets

At this point I don't think that I need to 

tell anyone who reads here regularly that 

I am jumping up and down for spring! 

In this house,

spring = plants... 

it also equals yard sales.

Two of my favorite things.

About a month ago I found this amazing 

vintage tri-level basket hanger.

You know the kind that hangs in the kitchens of 

hipsters and grandmothers everywhere?

I've been dying for one, and when I 

saw this one for less that $1

I had to have it, even though there was no where

in my kitchen to hang it.

That's where this project came from.

A way to have lots of beautiful succulents 

on our tiny apartment balcony….

all wrapped up in an adorable hanging basket.

So here's a simple gardening DIY! 

Hope you enjoy!

What You Will Need:

Some sort of hanging basket

Coconut husk liners 

cactus soil

enough succulents for fill your baskets

Step 1:

First I fit my coconut liners into the baskets.

This took quite a bit of cutting and manipulating.

I used a total of 2 liners for this project.

The middle liner needed quite a bit cut off that I

used in the top tier.

Step 2:

Then I filled each basket about 2/3 full of soil.

Step 3:

I next arranged each of the succulents 

in their respective baskets while there were still in

their individual containers.

I had a pretty good idea of 

where each plant was going to go when 

I was purchasing them,

making sure to get a good variety 

of tall and short plants

as well as getting some with some hang to them.

Step 4:

After breaking down each root ball

to allow the plants to breath a bit,

I carefully arranged each

plant into its new home.

I made sure to give the succulents some space

so that as they grow they can fill in the baskets.

Step 5:

After everyone was in their new homes,

I gave them a heavy spray down

with a water bottle. 

Took a few steps back.

And fell in love! 

Enjoy!

Coffee Talks

"Bustin' out my wellies." -Jess

"All this plant porn is making me miss you!" - Erin

30x30

As I am sure that you have noticed before, I love succulents.

They are beautiful and hard to kill.

A while back I made a terrarium for myself, and another for my neighbor.

Many of you responded to the images with a desire to know HOW???

So here it is.

Day 12: DIY Terrarium

The wonderful thing about making your own terrarium 

is that you can really be as creative as you want.

You can use any kind of vessel.

You can choose all sorts of different gravel.

And the choices of plants are essentially endless.

Step 1:

You will need:

Cactus soil

a container (I used a large glass jar)

gravel (I recommend hitting up petsmart or an aquarium store for better choices)

a variety of succulents, air plants, or cacti

1 chopstick

stones or figures (optional)

How to choose your plants:

There are really no rules here, but let me educate you a bit.

There are slight differences in the care of some of these plants,

especially between air plants and succulents.

(most succulents and cacti like the same conditions)

When choosing your plants you want to look for ones

 that not only coordinate in color, but also in care.

Looking for ones that like the same living conditions is key since they will 

essentially be living in their own mini ecosystem.

You also want to look for balance.

You need enough width and enough height so that your jar doesn't look empty.

I generally like to cover 3 zones.

1. plants that cover the base and won't grow taller, but wider.

2. medium heigh plants that are fuller that take up volume.

3. tall and thin plants for height.

You don't need to fill your jar with plants for it to look beautiful either,

sometimes less is more.

A little tip about how many...

Odd numbers are always more pleasing to the eye.

So instead of 4 plants, go with 3 or 5.

I have recently fallen in love with air plants, and found a great retailer on etsy.

Twisted Acres was so helpful in teaching me the ways of air plants.

They gave me great tips to keep my plants looking spectacular.

The customer service was second to none, and the plants came delivered in the mail so quickly.

Definitely check out their etsy shop!

Step 2:

First you must put a bottom layer of gravel on the bottom of your jar.

Succulents DO NOT like their roots to be wet and will rot if they sit in water.

Next, you will need to add enough soiled to cover 

all of your succulent and cacti's root systems.

Arrange your plants with enough space for them to grow.

Add more soil to cover the root systems and stabilize your plants.

Remember DO NOT plant your air plants in the soil.

Step 3:

Once everything is exactly where you want it,

add the top layer of gravel.

This is where I use a chopstick to help guide those pesky little stones into place.

Add your air plants into your arrangement right on top of the gravel.

Also this is a great time to add larger stones or other figurines.

I love the way that raw crystals look in terrariums.

Step 4:

Simply find the perfect place, 

making sure that your plants get just the right amount of sun.

It is so humid where I live that I rarely have to water these terrariums, 

they provide themselves with enough condensation to survive.

I sometimes remove the lid so that they can get fresh air 

and not build up too much moisture.

10 things i couldn't live without this week

1.  a double dose of dance class again this week. so my classes are on monday nights, and i am still sore from last monday.
2. wrapped up an amazing week long "stay-cation" with the hubs. we got so much done around the house and so many fun family moments!
3. got to join the amazing davidk space crew for staff movie night at the blind monk.  chris rock's good hair was hilarious and my new co-workers are awesome!
4. got some amazing thirfty finds this week! check them out here and here.
5. i found myself up to my elbow in potting soil a few times this week.  i finished my hanging succulent wall garden, added a ton of new succulents to the garden family, and repotted a ton of clippings.
6. the burton's hosted a kids craft day where we started to make paper mache pumpkins! i can't wait to share pictures from this super fun day! unfortunately we didn't have time to finish the pumpkins, but i guess that means that we are going to have to have another play date!
7. i would like to proudly state that we are out of diapers! the boy has proven that (with the exception of sleeping time) he is a big boy who doesn't need those stinkin diapers any more!
8. i don't ever really do much shopping for myself, but with the new job comes new work attire! i have had so much fun this week seeking out the best deals and steals.
9. the annual stitch rock was this weekend! i just love to go see all the crafters and talented people. we ate yummy gourmet watermelon popsicles, i picked up some spicy pickles from our lady of perpetual pickles, and found the perfect earrings at the lemoree booth!
10. with the first cold front of the fall season there is nothing more perfect than heading to the beach.  a "cold front" in south florida basically means you won't die of heat when you walk outside....it's still hot, jut not as hot.... i may try to convince the hubs to take a late afternoon bike ride to the beach today!

DIY: succulent wall garden

i've been crushing over these living art wall hangings and just had to make my own....and i thought i would share. so here is what you will need. to start you need a shadow boxed picture frame.  i found this one a while ago thrifting and it worked perfect for the project. you are also going to need quite a few succulent clippings, enough to almost fill your frame. you need potting soil, hardware cloth, wire cutters, a staple gun, and a pencil. 

step 1:

a few days before you are ready to start your wall garden, 

clip you succulents and strip the bases to allow them to callus.  

step 2:

measure and cut your hardware wire to fit on the inside of the picture frame. 

if you have a file, file down the sharp edges of the hardware wire.

 (note: for your own safety your should curl back the edges of the 

extra hardware cloth....that stuff is deadly!)

step 3:

you need to best water proof the inside of your shadow box. 

i tried using modge podge, but next time i may try to line it with plastic.

step 4:

staple the hardware cloth the inside of the frame. 

attach the shadow box.

step 5:

fill the frame with potting soil. 

begin to plant your succulents using the pencil to poke holes in the soil.

step 6:

continue planting the succulents giving them ample space to grow and fill in.  

once they are all planted, keeping the frame laying flat for about a week

 to allow the clippings to begin to take root.

after it's rooted you are ready to hang it.

take down and water once a week, 

or if you are keeping it in a humid place you can water less.

...and then there were 12.

so i have been feeling a sense of triumph lately with my plants. i have never had much of a green thumb, as a matter of fact i could kill about any plant you put in front of me. but at the end of my pregnancy we bought a tiny tiny aloe plant. it was about 3" tall. it was more of a cute joke than a serious gardening endeavor. but over the past two years, my has that thing grown. it's now about 2 feet tall and recently blossomed. (i am not going to lie, i didn't actually know that aloe blossomed until this happened.)

so with the internal gloat of this aloe success, paired with the other small success of not killing any other plants recently i decided it was about time to venture into edible gardening. deep down inside i would love to have this huge lush garden of fruits and veggies to fest on. so i bought a tomato plant. i decided on one that was already a full grown plant and had a few tomatoes on it, just to see if i could keep it alive. starting from a seed seemed a little too advanced just yet. so for the past few weeks i have meticulously cared for this plant. i didn't realize just how hard it was to keep a healthy tomato plant. there are so many factors that i didn't expect. but despite all the challenges i would say that i am doing pretty good. the plant started with three tomatoes, then i had 16. one morning i went out to check on the plant, and low and behold after counting and recounting and recounting again, there were only 15. my plant must have fallen prey to that damn possum that lives in our back yard. i grieved for a moment for the fallen tomato, but quickly recovered. and everything was looking great until yesterday.

after a beautiful afternoon of tending to my "garden" and playing outside with the family, we had a 3 tomato tragedy. and this time it was my own clumsy fault. that's right i accidentally broke 3 tomatoes right off the plant. i almost cried. i am keeping them in the kitchen window sill to see if they will ripen anymore so that they don't go to waste. if not i guess we will be having some fried green tomatoes soon.

but for now, we are down to 12.