Category : Indoor Ideas
Well, the long weekend is almost over for those of us in the USA. If you are like me you may find yourself in some serious bumper to bumper traffic as you leave the beach, and having a little garden reading can really lighten the travel stress. Here’s what I’m going to be reading today on my way home!
Amy Leigh over at “Growing Plants Indoors” is talking carnivorous plants, and has a list of 10 Indoor Plants That Can Eat Bugs, and break you out of your indoor plant rut.
Fine Gardening has a great article on how to plant 10 Different Plants For Year Round Container garden appeal!
Fern over at Life on the Balcony has tips for the summer gardener, and how to start a late Summer Edible Container Garden.
Virginia over at Planet Green is giving us the dirt on city gardening with The City Girl’s Guide to Country Gardening Lesson #12: Sussing Out Your Soil.
And TipNut has 50 Soothing Home Remedies you can make yourself to treat and relieve your summer sunburn. Talk about timely information!
I’m off to hit the roads, so I wish the rest of you the best of luck in your travels as well! I hope you had a restful Fourth of July Weekend.
Here’s a bright way to grow your own kitchen herbs from Quirky.com! The folks at Quirky pride themselves on creating innovative products that can’t be bought in stores, and this flexible stem garden makes a charming addition to the kitchen counter.
It hold 6 small planting cups made from terra cotta, and is the perfect size for the kitchen herb garden. Each cup is removable for easy planting, and features a hole in the bottom to prevent too much water from being trapped inside. Excess water flows down the flexible stems into the terra cotta reservoir at the bottom, which can be emptied easily.
The garden will run you about 34 dollars, and soil and seeds are not included. If you’re looking for a creative planter for yourself, or for a garden buddy, check out the link above.
If you are like me, the winter months can become frustrating with the lack of floral fodder from the garden close at hand to create indoor arrangements. Craft stores, florists, and even your local grocery store have plenty of floral supplies to help you fill the house with blooms, but for the true DIYer who enjoys building their own centerpieces, the right floral accent to make your designs stand out is as close as your local garden center. Why not save some money in the long term, and plant the perfect “ting” alternative in your very own yard?
There is a great plant on the market that has become a favorite in the florist industry for winter weddings and crafts. It is easy to grow, and available a many garden centers now across the country. This fabulous find is Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick.
Decorator Designs For Every Season:
- Spring: Mix curly stems into a tall vase of Daffodils, and hang Easter eggs and neatly strung spring cut-outs from the boughs.
- Summer: Prune smaller branches off the shrub, pick the leaves off, and use the twigs in place of ‘ting’
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I’ve got some corners in my house that would be perfect for a little planter or two, my only problem is that these dark corners are beyond the reach of my windows, and completely unsuitable for large grow lights. I discovered this small scale grow light this week while “window shopping” that was just too great not to share!
Solutions Catalogue online has this great tabletop sized grow light for small spaces, that is perfect for small spaces, tabletop containers, or shelf displays. These grow lights run about 29 dollars, and are a great way to keep indoor plants healthy where window light is scarce. I know a few friends who would love something like this to cheer up a dark corner in a basement apartment, but there are plenty of ways to incorporate something like this into your desk at work or even on a bookshelf at home.
Check it out if you are looking for something small to get things growing in your space!
Occasionally the best indoor accent plants can come straight from the wild. The Indian Strawberry is a naturalized weed from India that works wonderfully as an indoor plant, and it’s free! This perennial has tiny decorative blooms, and small brightly colored berries that resemble miniature common strawberries.
Shady lawns and gardens across the United States have been sporting these misplaced plants for decades, where they attract the attention of wildlife and children everywhere. For the lawn purist the weeds need eradication with selective spraying, or removing by hand in order to control the runners. Instead of throwing the runners in the compost bin however, try potting them in a simple milk-glass container to brighten up a dimly lit corner of your house.
Blooms and Berries:
This ground cover sends out little yellow flowers in the late spring and early summer, which turn into tasteless miniature berries from mid summer through September. The berries are safe and edible, so Indian Strawberry is a plant that is also kid and pet friendly.
How to Plant It:
The mature plant can be dug up and planted in an indoor container year round. To grow your own plants from start to finish, collect seeds from the berries, and plant them in February or March for spring and summer blooms and berries. Another way to propagate the plant is to lay some of the runners on the soil line of the original container and allow them to root. As the new runner plants establish themselves they keep the container looking lush.
Another great way to re-purpose this garden green is to use it as a “spiller” to add to your shaded outdoor hanging baskets and containers.
Give this plant a try, and see what other common plants you can find creative uses for!
Happy Gardening.
Photos Courtesy of: fdecomite, FotoDawg, and Pomponiaarte
By far one of my favorite gifts under the tree, the AeroGrow AeroGarden with Gourmet Herb Seed Kit was a welcome surprise for a green thumb like me, who misses gardening during the winter months. A solution for year-round indoor herb and flower growing, this all containing unit consists of growth lights, seed pods, and fertilizers that work together in a soil-less counter-top garden. The premise of the system is built on aeroponic technology, which allows for a more bountiful crop when plants are grown in a highly oxygenated and nutrient rich pool of water. AeroGarden has perfected this technology for the average consumer by creating a product that more or less runs itself when set up correctly, and is family and novice gardener friendly.
The kit can be assembled in five minutes or less, with or without the detailed directions, and is up and running as soon as you plug it into the wall. The hood lamp is adjustable, and can grow in height along with your plants, and the center piece of the garden kit holds within it the water basin, and air bubbler. The base of the unit contains a pre-programmed computer that will monitor the water level, growth light timing, and fertilization for you, once the variety of seed being planted is selected from the menu (ie: herb, veggie, flower, etc.) Once the initial set-up is completed, lights on the base of the unit will alert you to a need for fertilization or water, taking all of the guess work out of indoor gardening. This also assists the novice gardener by preventing two of the main causes of house plant death, over-watering, and fertilization problems. The Nutrient tablets that come with the kit are well labeled and rationed for you, needing only to be added when the garden system alerts you to a need for either. Seed pods consist of small, pre-planted baskets, with a peat moss lining, that snap into the open holes over the water basin. All the pods are well labeled with the plant’s name and future height (short, medium, tall), along with a hint as to when the first sprouts should appear.
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Better Homes and Gardens is offering all the joys of pumpkin carving without all the mess! Whether you live in the city and find pumpkins on short order, or just want to keep the grandkids busy on a rainy afternoon, you can log on to this site and design away, printing out refrigerator ready pics when you are through! Check it out!
I was invited to a Pumpkin Carving Contest at a friend’s house recently (Thanks Patrick and Becky!) – a contest I soon realized was to be taken more seriously than I had originally thought!
Being a newcomer to the rowdy sport of Competitive Pumpkin Carving, my “A-Game” strategy went only as far as planning the size and shape of the Pumpkin for my team! I zipped through the pumpkin patch with nephews in tow, searching for the perfect pumpkin to inspire fear in the opposing teams. My final purchase measured in at two feet tall and a solid 42 pounds, and was the heaviest squash I was capable of moving into and out of my SUV’s trunk!
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Ready to try something different with your pumpkin this year? Grab your family pumpkin and prepare for a dessert that will have you visiting the local pumpkin patch for second helpings!
Long before pumpkin pie was a twinkle in the eye of colonial Americans, the original dessert of choice in fall and winter was a variation of this baked pumpkin recipe! An unusual party dish, this dessert is served scooped from the hollow center of a whole pumpkin, and looks as good as it smells on your fall table. I was privileged to try this for the first time at a work function recently, and can’t wait to bake my own ASAP!
What You Need For This Recipe:
1 pumpkin, 5 – 7 pounds
6 whole eggs
2 cups whipping cream
½ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ginger
2 tablespoons butter
Check out the link above and add this great treat to your fall repertoire. I’ll add pictures of my own dessert as soon as I prepare mine.
Your Thoughts: Have you tried baked whole pumpkin? Are there any tricks to doing it that perfect this type of recipe?
Photo courtesy of: Teo
Well, my best friend’s Lucky Bamboo has found a new home, and you’ll never guess who with…ok, well, you might be able to guess. You’re right, it’s me! As of this afternoon, I am now the proud owner of some miniature Bamboo, and hopefully all the glorious Feng Shui benefits that come with it!
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