Desert Dreams

I had some cacti that needed a new home, and I had these two glass containers I wasn't using.  Since they are glass, and don't have any drainage holes, and cacti don't like to sit in water I added some broken terra cotta planters and a little bit of sand to soak up any extra moister that collects on the bottom.  They will also slowly release their moisture as the soil dries out.  

I used Cactus soil that I bought at Lowe's.

This is how my cacti and new succulents look in their new home.  I had to buy soil, and I couldn't resist buying a few of the cheapest succulents.    

I'm really pleased with how they look on my plant shelf.  I hope they do well in their new homes!  

Happy DIYing, chris!

Transplanting an Orchid

Yesterday I did a couple indoor gardening projects, and I'm going to share one today.  I transplanted my orchid.  I transplanted it from a five inch terra cotta container into a ten inch.  I used sphagnum moss for the growing medium.  

I soaked the sphagnum moss in a bowl of water before placing some in the bottom of the new terra cotta planter. 

Once I filled the bottom with enough moss to bring the orchid base level with the top of the planter I gently placed it on the moss bed.  Before placing the orchid on the moss, I let any loose growing material fall away from the roots.  That way the roots will have an easy time finding the nutrients in the new moss.  

Then I filled in the extra room surrounding the orchid with more moist sphagnum moss.

Once the planter was properly filled with moss, without packing it, I took the plant to the sink, and gave it a through watering.  

This is the orchid in it's new home.

I have it sitting on a container with a few pebbles so the water will have some where to go when I water, without letting the roots sit in water.  

Hope my plant does well in it's new home, and I hope you enjoyed, happy DIYing, chris! 

2013 Plant Update

There hasn't been much progress with my outdoor seedlings Aaron and I started a couple weeks ago.  Today I made a little plant marker with a plastic dino for some Romaine lettuce.  We plant romaine every year, so I thought a fun marker would be appropriate.  I used an orange permanent marker to label the dino.  

We planted the lettuce in a wooden wine box.  Since we planted the lettuce there has been a few dustings of snow, and the temperatures have been hanging out in the mid-30s (Fº).  So there hasn't been any signs of growth, but hopefully they'll survive, and pop up once we get a few days in the 50s.  

Here are our Milk Jug Seedlings.  They are sitting against our house, on the southern facing side, which gets the most light.  No signs of growth yet, but I hear spring is on it's way.  

Here are our indoor herb plants.  They are doing really well I need to transfer them to larger containers already!  

This is my whole indoor garden.  I am also growing an orchid, some cacti, a gerber daisy, and an evergreen.  I just bought a basil plant.  The basil seeds I started hasn't been growing, because the soil I used was too dense, and took too long to dry out.  The little seedlings didn't get enough air to grow, and are extremely stunted.  That's what's in the two plastic cups in the center of the table.  

Here is a pic so you can see my lighting.  I use a single CFL in the highest wattage I can buy, with a Foto pendant from Ikea.  It seems to do a great job for my plants.  If the light can get a bird of paradise to bloom in the middle of winter, then it's doing good by me.  

Hope you enjoyed, and happy planting, chris!

Indoor Garden

Today I had to replant my gerbera daisy.  it's gotten super root bound.  I let it dry out a bit for the transplant, and when I turn it over it fell right out of the orange pot I had DIY'd a while back.  

I had a kitty helper.  

The plant in it's new container.  We bought this one at a local garden center.  I watered it right away after, and hopefully the plant wont go into mega shock.  

Here is a little look at how my indoor garden is coming along.  I need to get a smaller plant stand for the giant tropical plant on the left.  I'm excited about how the plants are coming along.  The cat grass I planted is really taking off!

Hope all is going well, happy DIYing, chris!