Seedy Characters

OK, I give up. Despite our best efforts, pretty much all of the food plants we were attempting to grow inside have failed. Mostly I blame the fungus gnats that have totally overwhelmed our plants. More on them in a future post. 

But, hey! It's California, right? Can't waste all this temperate sunshine on NOT growing plants. So instead of edibles (even the herbs died!) we've focused our attention instead on propagating some succulents and cacti. So much has been written on propagating succulents from leaf cuttings, I'm not even going to go into it here. Needless to say, it's incredibly easy. And if you live in a place where succulents are thriving everywhere, I suggest you take a walk after a good storm and pick up some fallen leaves. We've gotten a great deal of plants that way (plus a bit of Home Depot pilfering. What they don't know won't hurt them.) 

New to the mix is growing cacti from seed. In the little pots below are Lithops, Fenestraria (Baby Toes), and Diteranthus seeds, all so incredibly tiny that they could pull an over-stuffed clown car sight gag inside of a sesame seed. I feel like (previous paragraphs excluded) I have a pretty green thumb, but I've never tried growing anything like this from seed before. I'm looking forward to posting updates!

 

Just in case anyone is wondering, Diteranthus seeds are the smallest things I've ever seen.

 

Fun ideas for potting up plants

Those of you who know me know that I've been working part-time at a succulent nursery here in the Bay Area while looking for full-time employment. I've been making some really fun 'arrangements' of succulents in standard pots as well as lava rocks and it's got me thinking of other ways to display your plants. Having recently moved to an apartment that lacks the backyard to which I'd become accustomed on Chicago's south side, I'm thinking a lot lately about how to get as many plants in my home as possible.

One cute idea that I used to see sometimes back in Chicago is using cinderblocks turned on their sides as planters. I found an link here from the apartment therapy website on how to make a DIY succulent planter, and thought I'd share their image for inspiration. There's more of a tutorial on the site if you need it, but it seems pretty self-explanatory.

I love, love, love this idea and can't wait to try it out with herbs. Picture some oregano draping over the top, the mint nicely isolated to keep it from squeezing out all the other plants. Maybe some chives for fun. But it still sadly requires a bit of outdoor space. Or a great deal of time in water-sealing if you wanted to try it indoors. I, for one, don't really feel like bringing that many blocks of cement up to the forth floor of my building. Next!

Poetic Home has some really cute ideas on how to repurpose things around your home into planters. I always get a little nervous when people don't allow drainage, no matter how many rocks/pot shards are at the bottom of a pot. But the ideas are so cute and (as long as your plants are small and carefully watered) a great idea for ways to cram plants into every last nook of your home.

And, of course, there's always Crate and Barrel. I've got a few of each of their Hanging Candle Holders and Beaker Wall Vases at home, and they're each great in their own way. My boyfriend keeps his air plant in the candle holder, misting twice a week, and I keep cuttings of pothos or other draping, viney plants in the wall vase. Probably anything that's happy without soil would work, though.

Check out the Flora Grubb website for great ideas on air plant display as well as tons of other fun indoor gardening ideas. Another favorite of mine, the vertical garden, is pictured below. Ms. Grubb is a fantastic source of inspiration, and great floral design happens there, too!

How cool is this?!?!