Hanging Herb Garden (The Easiest One)

Things have pretty temperate here in Greenville lately. Not too hot or rainy and just a little breezy. The long sunny days have encouraged keeping the curtains open as much as possible to let in the natural light. I noticed something that made me a little nervous: the sun was never reaching my herb plants. Obviously, that led to an instant panic that the plant babies were going to die any minute from a lack of sun. Something had to be done.



Macrame and I are old friends going back to the days of summer camp and friendship bracelets. I've seen all kinds of hanging planters on the interwebs and decided it shouldn't be too hard to combine the old skill and the "new" trend. I've been pleased with the outcome since the herbs seem to be much happier and the colorful hanging pots are more fun to see. Because each hanger involves so many steps, I'm splitting them into 3 posts to keep them from getting overwhelming. This first one using 4 strands took about 10 minutes to make.



You will need:

Small Pot filled with the sun-craving plants of your choice
4 pieces Nylon rope, 72" each
1" Steel welded O-ring (can be bought individually in store for 80 cents)
Lighter (optional)

I chose these pots from Lowe's for a few reasons. 1, they were adorable and cheap (that alone would be enough honestly). Second, they were light-weight plastic so they wouldn't weight down the rope or the hooks too much and the sun shouldn't be too drying or damaging. These pots are also "self-watering" which means the pots don't drain on the patio below and it should help protect them from drying out with the dramatic increase in sun. Lastly, I was already there and didn't feel like shopping around anymore. So there's that.

4 Strand Hanging Planter

It was originally hard to see the detail in the pictures with the white rope so I used different colored yarn instead. Also, there were no rings left so I used the ring from a plastic bottle. Because I'm classy.

The first step is to gather all the strands and feed them through the ring. Once the ring is at the center of the strands, you'll tie what I like to call a "pretzel knot." Warning: do not use that term in front of people who know what they are doing/care about technical terms or they will laugh at you. The pretzel knot is the only one you'll use for this whole planter. Just cross the strands over each other and pull through the center. It helps to pull each individual strand as tightly as possible after tightening up towards the ring.

There's now 8 strands that are a little less than 36 " long. About 10" down, tie pretzel knots in pairs. 5" from there tie pretzel knots again, being sure to split the strands that were just tied together and join them with their immediate neighbors (see why the colors made this so much easier to explain?). Lastly, 3" down tie another pretzel knot using all strands and tighten. Finish it off by trimming the ends and using your lighter to melt the tips to keep the rope from unraveling. That's it! Seriously, 10 minutes tops.



The planter is pretty short. Finished it's only about 20" long, which was perfect for what I wanted but you may want to make your ropes longer that 72" to start with if you're looking for something more. They're so quick to make you can experiment. Keep an eye out this week if you're interested in the others which will be titled "The Ever-So-Slightly More Complicated One", and then "The Unexpectedly Challenging One."

Do you think macrame hangers are back in style? Do you know the real name for the pretzel knot? I'd love to know!

Sheila

Mini Garden Tools

In a world divided by so many issues like politics and religion, I think we can all agree on one thing: tiny stuff is freakin' adorable. Babies. Puppies. Kittens. Tiny versions of big things are 100% cuter. It's science.

That said, these tiny garden tools have stolen my heart.



A friend at work recently asked me what I knew about fairy gardens. I knew they existed, but I've really only recently learned to keep plants alive for longer than a week. I have a VERY limited experience base, but as mentioned earlier, anything in miniature means I'm all in. Also, a while ago polymer clay was on sale at the craft store and I thought to myself "I've never used this and have no plans for needing it but it's on sale so I better buy one of every color." Because that's how responsible adults shop. This then became a quest to use the polymer clay for the first time AND make something tiny. Win-win.

You will need:

White polymer clay
Clay tools intended for children (because after buying all the unnecessary clay, why invest in reasonable quality tools?)  
Paint or nail polish or your choice, brown and silver used here
Black Sharpie
Black string or embroidery floss

The first step is to work the clay. Depending on what kind you have, it might take a while. I used a tiny bit at a time and worked in another chunk when the first was pliable. If your clay is super crumbly or stubborn, you can use a tiny bit of Vaseline on your fingers to help. When the clay is easy to mold and smooth, take a piece about the size of your finger tip and shape it into a rectangle.

To make both the trowel and the rake, start by very gently rolling the top half of the rectangle between your fingers to shape the handle. Use the rounded tool to create a dent at the end of the handle. For the trowel, continue to roll the rounded edge until the desired thickness is reached then trim the ends to shape. For the rake, use a cutting tool to remove tiny slivers from the flat end and create the prongs. Use a pointed tool or toothpick to create a small hole in the handle ends.

The watering can is a bit trickier. I started with 3 different sized pieces, 1 about the size of a gum ball, another the size of a lima bean, and the other was somewhere in between the others. The lima bean piece was flattened into a thin circle about an inch across. The biggest piece was rolled into a cylinder shape and then slowly, carefully hollowed in the center using the rounded tool and my thumb. This piece goes on top of the former lima bean piece. Lastly, use the medium size piece to create the spout, handle, and hood: a skinny tube for the spout with ball flattened on one side and dabbled, another short tube for the handle, and a flat semi-circle for the hood. The pictures should hopefully help all this make more sense.

The pieces all stuck to themselves well with nothing but light pressure applied before baking. I used a toothpick with a small clay "pedestal" to prop up the spout and make sure it didn't get droopy before it baked. Put all your tools on a piece of foil and follow package instructions to bake your clay. Fimo required 30 minutes at 230 degrees.

Once they're cooled they're ready to paint! I used an acrylic brown which went on very streaky and gave an accidental wood grain appearance that I love. Finding a silver was a little more challenging. The perfect thing was hiding in the form of metallic silver nail polish which has exactly the galvanized look I was hoping for.

One the paint dries, use a sharpie to add bands around the handles and nail details on the watering can. Lastly, add a short piece of black embroidery thread to create straps on the tools and you're done. Add them to any indoor plant to create a mini garden all your own. And marvel in their tiny, adorableness. 

Would you add this fun touch of whimsy? How would you personalize them? What other tiny things should we make? I'd love to know!

Sheila

The Start of an Apartment Container Garden (this could end badly)

Do you ever just get carried away with an idea? Usually, I thoroughly research before starting a project or making a purchases that could fail miserably. For some reason this time I just threw caution to the wind and came home with a sizable collection of baby plants and delusions of grandeur about a patio container garden.



For a beginner, it was bit ambitious but go big or go home I suppose. The collection includes strawberries, banana peppers, green bell peppers, and spinach, plus an "herb shelf" with mint, lavender, and parsley. Y'all. I went all in. But all in, in all the wrong ways. Just in case anyone out there is an naive about keeping plants alive as I am, I'm going to fill you in on all the mistakes and lessons so far so hopefully you won't have to make as many on your own.



For starters,there is a huge difference between garden soil and potting soil, which is probably insanely obvious to everyone but me. I didn't make this realization until reading the bag AFTER transplanting the first few plant babies. This was corrected the very next day with a healthy blend of potting soil and Compost Plus. Needless to say, I also had to grab some gloves since the Compost Plus is fresh off the dairy pasture...

Next, I had bought long, deep canisters called veranda boxes which don't come with the drain holes already popped out. You're supposed to do that yourself. I didn't notice until after filling the containers so fixing that took some fancy finagling. The herbs are in a smaller, shallower window box. Aside from the original drainage issue the boxes are great. They're heavy enough that wind doesn't bother them but light enough that I was able to move them inside when there was a freeze warning the other night.

The last lesson was on overcrowding. I had this image of lush, abundant garden boxes overflowing with edible greenery... I had put 4 pepper plants all right next to each other with about an inch inbetween before reading that they need some distance to allow roots to spread without competing for nutrients. Plants, like people, like their personal space. Who knew?

So in a nut shell: potting soil, draining, and space are the magic words. At least I knew enough to check how much sun they would need! After repairing the many, many mistakes, it was time to add the first personal touch with wood-burned plant markers. Oh, and did I mention they were free? Because starting a container garden is surprisingly expensive if you don't already have a ton of stuff on hand.

You will Need:

Wooden paint stirrers
woodburner
pencil
minimal fear of burning yourself



The nice man at the paint counter of Home Depot didn't even make a face when I asked for 8 paint stirrers without buying any paint. The hardest part of this project is following the curves in letters. Straight lines are nice and simple but even the slightest of curves gets a little complicated. Write out the labels while waiting for the woodburner to heat up, then very carefully go over the pencil with the burner. Watch your hands--that this is NOT playing around. I also recommend having a few extras you can practice on before going for the real thing, but I'm obviously a very novice woodburner so maybe that won't be an issue for you.



They're plain, but sturdy and rustic. If you really wanted to get fancy you could paint them or weatherize them.

You might be proud to know that not only are all of the original plant babies still alive, I actually have some seedlings sprouting for zucchini, eggplants, mini tomatoes, and sunflowers. The professionals didn't even have to start these. Naturally, a gardening Pinterest board was created.

Do you have any gardening experience? Container or otherwise. Any tips or rookie mistakes to avoid? I'd love to know!

Sheila

P.S. Happy belated Earth Day :)