This blog is about random things in my life, I like to talk and I like to share my opinion (whether asked for or not) and this seems like the best place for those quirky random fleeting thoughts!
Ok, back in February I was stoked that I had set out to make terrariums. And to be honest they didn't turn out exactly how I expected but still made for a nice decoration in the living room. But inevitably the process of creating the terrariums was a lot more fun than maintaining them. Between overwatering (or possibly under watering), not enough sunlight, and a general lack of knowledge when it comes to moss, the terrariums weren't looking great month or so down the road.
It was time for a spruce up - especially considering we have people viewing our apartment and it was far from appealing. Some of the plants seemed to fair better than others, this meant I needed smaller sturdier succulents. Back to the garden shop we went, and together we picked out 5 new plants. Not all were intended for the terrariums, I planned to shift some of the plants and use a couple other pots lying around. (Pots left over from the basil I managed to kill by forgetting it outside one night in the cold - maybe I don't have such a green thumb after all.)
The moss died every time, so I just yanked it out. Some of the other plants had rotted and were removed a while ago. Then surprisingly a couple of the plants had actually grown and started to spread, like the Torch plant. The firsts terrariums I built were over crowded, this time I went for less is more, obviously hoping round two goes better, fingers crossed. Oh yeah, there was also the Spider plant that was on the brink of death, which I repotted and put outside in a last ditch effort. And I decided to throw in a cactus this time, getting it home and planting it proved to be a painful experience despite how small it is, ha-ha!
Probably should have pulled out a camera other the iPhone, but here are some pics of finished round 2.
And I was hoping you could help me with one thing... any tips on how to clean the soil off the plants once they been potted? Seems every time I ended up tossing soil over part of the plant and it just ends up looking messy! You would think water would do the trick, but then it would be over watered?!
I'll be sure to give you another update in a month or so!
Time for the big reveal... after a lot of work, here are the 5 different terrariums I created!
Since I had never made a terrarium before I had no idea which container would be easiest or look best, so I chose 5 different shapes/sizes.
Some things I learned along the way :
-should have picked smaller plants or bigger vases (some of the plants didn't fit down inside the vases as intended)
-enjoyed working with the fish bowl the most (the shape of the bowl helped to create the idea of an enclosed garden the best)
-the tall medium sized container was runner up (the depth of the container also helped to create the look I was going for)
-consider how deep the plants need to be inserted into the soil compared to the size of the vase (some weren't deep enough and the plants stick out)
-not all succulents are easy to work with (a couple broke quite easily and some just stabbed me every time I put my hand in the vase)
Now it's time to let nature take its course! I'll be sure to give you a follow-up in a couple weeks. For all I know half of the plants are dead by next week, only time will show where my mistakes were. Luckily we learn from mistakes and I'll know what else to take into consideration next round. Once I get better at this, I plan on finally investing the money in the unusually shaped vases that originally attracted me to this project! Or even adding figurines to create some kind little world within the terrariums.
Enjoy the pics! (Took the pics outside where I was working, but since then they have been brought inside and distributed around our apartment.) BTW, I obviously really enjoyed this project from beginning to end!
And if you're curious what I originally saw on Pinterest that sparked my interest, here are a couple links : Better Homes & Gardens (used this as base instructions) Uncovet Blog (love the unusual shapes of theses terrariums)
The weather was clear & sunny, the air not too cold, and my 4yr old was at school... perfect time to start the terrariums!!! I hauled the supplies out to my terrace as needed, and of course this meant starting with the vases and stones. Luckily the 88 lb bag of stones was already in my shed, so I just filled a bucket to tote the stones back & forth.
#1 : 1-2 inches of stones at the bottom of each vase for drainage
#2 : fill the vases 1/4-1/3 full with soil
Wow, it was seeming simple at this point, I figured I'd been done in no time. Next was bringing all of the plants outside. I kept them inside away from the cold as long as I could. With all of the plants in a row, I now had to decide how I wanted to sort them. Some of the original combinations I had in mind weren't going to fit, but no biggie. Plants grouped near their destined containers, I was ready to continue.
#3 : transfer the plants to the vases
I've transferred plants before and I must admit it wasn't always a success. But to be fair that was when I was transferring them from one pot to another, not from the plastic store containers to a pot. It was here I hit my first snag. The level of soil wasn't deep enough for the plants, hmm. Then once I had the plants in the vases I realized there was little space over to add soil & moss between them. And a couple of the plants were harder to work with than I thought, especially the Jelly Bean plant, pieces kept breaking off and going throughout the vase. And the Aloe-ish (I have no idea what it is but it's sharp) was hard to maneuver around thanks to it stabbing me the entire time. But most of the other plants I chose worked great, at least I hope. Now it was time to move on to the moss, but I had run out of time, I needed to run to the school and pick up my 4yr old for lunch. (They often eat lunch at home here in The Netherlands.) I lugged the now filled and obviously more heavy vases back inside, I didn't dare risk leaving them too long out in the cold and I wasn't sure when I would actually get back to my project. A couple hours later, I was ready to add the last thing to the terrariums, and yes, I carried all 5 of them back outside again.
#4 : cover soil with moss
O.k., I've never worked with moss before, I had no idea what I was doing. After tearing a few pieces off and placing them in the vases I noticed the layer of moss below the top layer was actually moister & healthier. I left the top layer on for protection from the cold and then worked with the layers below. Since I have 0 understanding of moss, I've decided to hold on to the crate (yes this means storing in the house for a while) for at least a week. Just in case the moss in the terrariums die I have back-up.
#5 : water the plants, soil, & moss
The terrariums are put together & watered, and now sitting on my dining room table drying and acclimating to their new environment. Most likely tomorrow, I will find them permanent places within our apartment.
Yes, I did it! Do they look like the ones I saw online, ummm, well, my own version, let's just say that. Check back soon for Creative Mission - Part 4, and I'll show you the result as well as give you some extra pointers!
Now that I had my vases for the terrarium project, it was time to collect the rest of the items on my list. I headed out to a large garden shop, my 4 yr old in tow. (She loves plants and shopping so it wasn't going to be an issue.) Since I don't often shop at these types of places it took me a while to find what I was looking for. You also have to keep in mind I found my project in English online, and I'm standing in a Dutch store. Some of the plants I remembered from pictures I had seen, some I had to refer to their scientific names - luckily I had a list. We bought a big variety of plants, ranging from a Coral Cactus to a Spider Plant.
With the plants picked out I now needed to find moss. Hmm, I had walked through the entire store multiple times and hadn't seen it anywhere. We headed to the outside department in the rain, and still couldn't find it. Once we were back inside I stopped to think for a minute, when I looked down there was a crate full of moss! Apparently I had to buy it by the crate, it made sense. The next item was going to be more difficult, activated charcoal (carbon). Maybe in The States this is easy to get a hold of or a reasonable price, but not here. The teenager behind the counter couldn't comprehend what I was looking for and was little help. I of course referred to my phone and Googled suggestions, I quickly realized I was going to have to look in the aquarium department, because that's the only time the Dutch use it (to filter the water.) By this point my daughter was tired of being there and wanted to head off to the next store.
After pricing the stones & pebbles at the garden shop, I knew I could get them cheaper at a DIY store, so off we went. (At the DIY store I bought 2 bags of stones for what I would have paid for 1 bag at the garden shop.) The interesting thing about this DIY store is the stones are located in a self-service drive-thru. Usually I have my husband with me to do the heavy lifting but this time it was up to me. In the rain I loaded the SUV up with 2 huge bags of stones (1 weighed around 55 lbs & the other 1 weighed around 88 lbs, but I managed - would like to see the store security footage though, ha-ha!) Inevitably I had them for the right price, but I was dirty, not my favorite thing. Wanting to price the activated carbon we headed inside the store. They wanted €15 for a box, and it wasn't exactly in the form I needed. Forget it, I was going to have to come up with another idea.
Once back home, I hopped on the computer and looked up alternatives for activated charcoal. Apparently there aren't so many. One tutorial showed how to make it myself, yeah, wasn't really planning on that. So I went back to a variety of DIY terrarium sites and they said the activated charcoal is used in closed terrariums to help with mold and to filter the air. But if you are building an open top terrarium the activated charcoal was not needed. Yes!
So, now that all the items are collected I just need to find time to finally starting making the terrariums. I need an undisturbed block of time and preferably no rain so I can work outside, this is yet to come. Crossing my fingers for this afternoon, but between school and play dates I'm not really sure if that time will come today. Meanwhile, everything is stacked in the corner of my living room, don't want to kill the succulent plants by storing them outside in the cold!
I'm on creative mission, I've decided to make a few terrariums! How did I come up with this, you wonder... well, it started out when I wanted 1-2 new decorations for a shelf in my living room. I checked the stores, didn't really like the prices I was seeing, and to be honest the decorations weren't even really what I wanted. I like unique and sort-of eclectic, so maybe I was just looking in the wrong places. One day while skimming through Pinterest I saw an image of a terrarium collection. I kept thinking about the idea, and realized, hey, I want that in my house, what a great idea for an indoor decoration!
Then the creative mission started, I decided to make my own! Why... it's fun and also because I didn't want to pay the prices for the few I had seen in the stores. (And to be honest they weren't even that nice.) Being that I am frugal, and there is high risk that this project might not work out, I decided to buy the vases from local second-hand shops (aka kringloop).
This turned out to be an interesting experience in itself. I even managed to embarrass myself on a couple of occasions... like following people into a warehouse when it turns out the store wasn't even open that day or at another shop asking if I could take a look around their warehouse and shop when the actual store was around the corner. And even at one second-hand shop I had to turn in my purse, which happened to have my husbands passport in there, oops, luckily nothing was taken out!
The 1st & 3rd second hand shop I went to were a bust. Sure, I saw some incredible finds, but just not what I was looking for. The 2nd store, now they had a decent collection of vases, ones I could actually work with. They're shapes aren't as unusual as I would like, but that's because I'm paying roughly €2 per vase versus €20-€50 I had seen at normal stores. In the end I've ended up with 1 fish bowl and 2 flower vases from the second-hand shop. I wanted something a little bigger, so I still went back to a discount shop and picked up a tall vase (I had been pricing vases all over town, from flower to fish shops. And then seeing the size of the vase was dramatically different than the others, I decided to toss in a glass vase that had been collecting dust in my shed. At this point, I was out a total of less than €10 and have 5 vases that need to be washed and filled!
In a follow up post, I'll be sure to show you some of the great things I stumbled upon at the second-hand shops (things not really relevant to my terrarium project). And besides clear glass vases, I was also looking for thick books with unusual bindings to help stack the smaller vases and either rocks or figurines to go inside the terrariums... I didn't find either but I'll skim the second hand shops again in a couple weeks.
Hope you enjoy my project, there will be more posts to come!!!
Do any of you have a snail or creature in your yard that has decided to make it officially their home? Apparently we have a pet snail! The snail decided to show its face about six months ago. We were preparing our terrace for a bbq and when I lifted the cover on our picnic table there was a snail in a beautiful yellowish shell. Immediately I grabbed my phone, snapped a pic, and ever since it has been one of my favorite Instagram pics. Then a good few months went by before it turned up again, this time in one of our plant containers. We accepted its presence and occasionally my husband would move it hoping to make it a little happier, maybe it would be more interested in the carrots than the weeds. After my daughter saw the movie Turbo, her interest in the snail grew and we also decided to name it Turbo, just like the racing snail in the kids movie. The other day my husband was clearing off the terrace to clean it with the high pressure hose when our daughter said, "hey, there's Turbo!" Turns out my husband had stepped on it, but some how it survived (similar to the movie). And yesterday before my husband went to play golf, he found the snail in his golf shoes which he often forgets outside. And without telling me (I wasn't home) he placed the snail in a mug on the kitchen counter and left for golf. When I returned home last night and started tidying up after putting our daughter to bed, I noticed the mug and tossed it in the sink not knowing there was a snail inside. I didn't get around to clearing the sink until this morning (hey, it's weekend). After loading the dishwasher I grabbed the wash cloth so I could finish up the dishes that didn't fit. And when I lifted the cloth from where it was draped over the faucet I realized Turbo was hiding in the upper corner of the sink. Naturally I freaked out and grabbed my camera again. (Unfortunately the sink wasn't clean, so I will not be showing you those pics.) Maybe other people dare touch snails and creatures, but not me. I was going to leave the snail until my husband could deal with it (I was even starting to think he had set me up to see how long it would take me to clean out the sink, ha-ha!) But when the snail decided to start creeping from one basin to another, I knew I had to do something about it. Didn't want the little thing to get into any salt or sugar, or spread germs of course. I have been holding on to some glass jars thinking about collecting bugs or worms for my daughter and now one had an official purpose! It didn't take me long to collect different types of soil from containers on our terrace, but the real question was how to lure the snail. (Keep in mind my 4yr old is watching everything.) We hit up Google to see what snails eat, and luckily we had mushrooms in the fridge I didn't mind using. After breaking one up and shoving into the small jar half full of soil we kept placing it in Turbo's path but again and again it avoided the jar. Then finally it curiously crawled inside... YES! Once it was safe inside I opened the door to outback and carried the jar & snail back out to the terrace. My daughter was very impressed that we gave it a little house. (Again, I took pics to share with everyone!) I doubt the little snail will be in the jar the next time we check, hope my daughter is not too disappointed. And then once we were back inside, I scrubbed the sink to no end and then hopped on my computer to share the story with you all!
Last year I tried my hand at a little gardening. And with success I managed to grow basil and flowers, and even started some carrots & tomatoes. I was sure to keep you all posted through my progress and even into the fall. In my last post I had just repotted everything, preparing for the cold. This didn't go as well as I planned, I lost a few plants during the transfer and then in the end I never bothered to bring any of them in and they died during the winter. In the mean time I picked up more seeds and eagerly awaited a warm spring day so my tot & I could plant new seeds and start from scratch again. But during the course of the winter and after a few rain showers I realized the wood containers I had purchased in the fall didn't drain. Which meant I was often having to dump excess water out, not to mention this standing water would most likely kill any new plants I added. I waited and waited for the beautiful spring day, and well, it hasn't exactly arrived yet. (O.k. there have been few and far between.) Needless to say April quickly rolled around and I still hadn't yet planted the seeds, something that should have taken place in March. But it was still snowing in March, c'mon, who's out gardening! Anyway, I knew I had to get my butt in action and get out there before I missed my chance. And since the containers weren't draining I had two options, get new pots (which is wasteful) or drill holes in the old ones (which is smart). Which one do you think I picked? Yep, I pulled out the old drill while my tot puttered in her sandbox and took care of the drainage problem. There wasn't as much team work this year, last year she was fascinated with the seeds, this year she only cared about her one little wooden container. As I mentioned, the sandbox was open, and that was only the 2nd time this year! I made the holes, dropped the seeds in, covered the holes, and watered the soil... there's not much else to it when you're an amateur. Now we wait. Since it's been raining most of this week, I can just set the pots under the overhang to shelter them from too much water and put them out again for a good dose of clean city rain water. I'm crossing my fingers I didn't wait too long. This year I skipped the flowers, they die out anyway, and went straight for herbs & veggies (seems more useful to me). My only issue now is keeping the dog out of the soil, on occasion she gets left on the terrace and when I go to let her in her little white beard is black and I know I have to go clean up the mess she made. And once the plants start growing I have to keep her from eating them, she has a thing for basil. The tot learned plant appreciation (she used to rip the leaves off everything), and so can the dog. I'll be sure to give you an update in a couple months!
During the spring I planted a lot of different seeds & bulbs and waited for results... I've never been the handiest when it comes to plants. Amazingly enough, nature worked its wonders and voila, I had flowers, veggies, & herbs! I've written a couple posts about my progress, so I thought I'd give you another update. The bulbs of gladioli didn't exactly work out, the leaves popped up but the flowers never did... apparently they needed a lot more sunlight than they were receiving. The mismatched pots full of seeds did the same, lots of leaves (still pretty) but no flowers... maybe it was already too late in the season. The basil my daughter and I planted took off, I was really impressed, they looked & smelled wonderful. And the starter sets for tomatoes & carrots also sprouted. But then the summer came as well as the puppy and needless to say the plants weren't getting the attention they needed. Realizing the weather was changing and the cold was on the way I knew I should try and salvage what plants I did still have. My toddler and I headed out to a large plant shop, Coppelmans in Valkenswaard (despite the buckets of rain that day). I had a general idea of what plants I wanted to replace and which ones I wanted to repot and before I knew it I had racked up a decent bill! The weather was too bad when we arrived home so we didn't actually get busy potting & repotting until the next morning, but boy did we have fun. It always gets messy when dirt & a 3yr old are involved in a project. It had been ages since I repotted a plant, so I took a big risk moving the basil. But from what I've read they have to come inside for the winter and the container they were in was too large. I lost one or two plants since the move, but the other 4-5 are doing great. Since I had left the tomatoes & carrots in the starter pots there was little hope for them, but the tomato plants have seemed to shape up since their move... still not sure about the carrots though. I filled the gaping hole where the basil had been with some kind of silver grayish plant, the sign said they'd hold up through the winter (and they matched my new grey, brown, & black wooden pots). I yanked up the remnants of the gladioli, dumped out the other flowers from the mismatched pots, and then went to work on some type of pepper plant I purchased. They add color, tying in the red & yellow from other decorations on the terrace, and they were pretty easy to put in their new pots. As of now, I'm quite happy with the results, and hope everything holds up through the winter. And also hoping I can find space for the ones the will not survive the cold somewhere in our already full apartment!
(When I snapped the pictures the plants were still waiting for a good watering, since then they have found their places on shelves & tables around our terrace.)
Here's a follow-up to a post from last October, Green Thumb. As you might have read in many posts, we are still stuck in an apartment that isn't selling thanks to the market. I finally grew tired of waiting for a new house with a backyard to plant herbs and vegetables in and decided to get busy on our terrace. It all started with one package of flower seeds my 2 year old received at school. We had a warm spell of weather in March and I decided to give gardening a shot, we'll just call it a practice round for the yard we'll one day have.
I dug out a few mismatched old pots from the shed and my daughter and I planted the seeds. We waited and waited then seedlings started popping up; I don't know who was more excited me or my daughter. Seeing it was enjoyable for both of us, I went in search of other plants. With her help we planted bulbs of gladioli and again waited. When the green began to peak through the soil we knew we were on a roll. The flowers haven't bloomed yet, but their time will come, the whites and golds from the different flowers will liven up our terrace even more.
Not wanting to stop there and wanting to encourage my daughter to eat vegetables we have gone on to plant tomatoes (my Dad grew tomatoes when I was a kid) and carrots, the seedlings sprouted this week! And being a fan of basil and hearing that it's one of the easiest things to grow, we also planted a row in a large rectangular pot, we're still waiting to see any results. Since my gardening skills are at a beginners level, I'm still trying to decide what's a weed and what is actually the plant I'm waiting on. You think weeds would be obvious, oh I have a lot to learn! Thanks to my father-in-laws awesome camera, I took a few shots to share with you all. I'm still learning how to use the camera so the pictures aren't as focused as I would like (either that or my vision is off)!
Is it possible, have I somehow developed a green thumb over the years? In years passed I couldn't keep a plant alive longer than a few months maybe a year, tops, but something has changed. Take a look at my pride and joys, they are over two years old!
To be honest, I have no idea what types of plants they are, but they're alive thanks to me! The first one I received as a birthday present when I was pregnant (2009) from our friends Linda & Bjorn. It's survived summers outside and winters inside. Every once in a while I see new growth, it's amazing! And the second plant I received as a gift from Kevin (my father-in-law) when our daughter was born. There used to be three beautiful orchids in the middle but they didn't make it. People tell me that orchids can all of sudden pop back up after a while, but it has been a long while. This plant was the decoration on our front window sill for years but eventually it grew so large that it was making it hard to see the t.v. from the couch. So I decided to get a new plant for the window sill and this one moved to shelf (actually the entire living room was rearranged due to one plant, but that's another blog, in itself). My mother-in-law (Liz) bought me the newest addition to the living room.
When I set the new plant down next to the old ones, I noticed how much healthier it looked. But that doesn't matter, I still love my other plants. Liz & Kim (Ryan's mother & sister) decided to tell me how shabby my old plants were and that I should throw them out, no way! I worked hard to keep them alive, plus they're sentimental (everything is sentimental to me, according to my husband I am a borderline hoarder). Since these plants have gone so well, I have bigger plans in mind. When we get a house I want a vegetable/fruit garden (Dutch = moestuin). Growing up in Florida someone in every generation of my family had some type of veg/fruit garden. Maybe it's in my blood, maybe I can have a green thumb too, or maybe they all just got lucky because of the warm Florida climate!
