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plant pouch from faux fur slipper

Upcycling Fuzzy Faux Fur into Plant Holders

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plant pouch from faux fur slipper

Ever wondered what to do with that old pair of slipper-boots that’s too worn out to wear, but still looks ok at the top? Of course you’ve wondered that, we all have right?

If you’re a plant person like all of us are, then you know exactly what to do with it – upcycle it into a plant pot, of course!

Here is a version using a pair of old furry slipper boots from Kmart – #kmarthack ! Yes please! Simply cut the top off the boot, turn inside out, sew the bottom together, turn the right way again – and wahlah! A pot!

Super funky, yes? These ones look a little bit Cookie-Monster, but that’s ok with us, and with our dwarf sanseveria here.

African-violet plant Gold Coast

African Violet Plant – Gold Coast

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African-violet plant Gold Coast

African Violets are beautiful little plants – with one drawback – they don’t like to be watered from the top, nor be too soggy underneath. So how to fix the problem, but neatly?

One of the most common ways is to sit the plant’s container on top of a take-away container filled with water – with a thick thread going between the two to act as a ‘straw’ sucking water from the container below to the one above.

Here is another example of a way we have also used – sitting the plant’s container on top of fine pebbles, with the thread down amongst them. This way is a little bit more ‘gifty’ and neat, but provides the same function.

 

aquatic plants in glass flasks and vintage bottles gold coast plants delivered

Planting aquatic plants in flasks and vintage bottles

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aquatic plants in glass flasks and vintage bottles gold coast plants delivered

A couple of years ago we started to experiment with small aquatic plants. The feedback has been great. The concept is really about making cute mini aquatic ‘terrariums’ (or really, mini aquariums – without the fish!).

We have used a variety of glassware, from vintage bottles to premium laboratory glassware. All seems to work well and be fairly low maintenance. The hardiest variety would have to be the hair-grass plants.

If you are planning to make one of these yourself, here are a few tips on what worked for us:

– make sure all bottles are very clean. (We washed ours with super-hot water and a little bleach before hand.)
– if you can get it, use aquarium-grade gravel, in a very small size. We have tried both ordinary gravel and aquarium gravel, very small and small, and the very small aquarium gravel was the best and easiest to work with.
– choose the best plants. Talk to the plant person about which are going to survive the best in the type of environment you will be creating. If your plant will be in a lot of light, or not much. If it will have a lot of room in your container, or not much (in which case you might need a slower-growing type of plant). All those types of things.

Happy planting!

 

Some thoughts on Concrete Pots

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We love the look of concrete pots, but there are some things to keep in mind when planting in them. Here’s a brief run-down of some things we’ve noticed:

1. If you are planting directly into a concrete pot with a raw (unpainted) surface, it will require you to water your plant more often. The concrete will suck out the moisture in the soil, much like terracotta. For some plants, like some succulents and cacti, this can be a good thing, but for other plants, not so much.

2. If you have a raw-concrete pot and want to plant in it, consider painting or waxing the inside, to seal it against the soil, so it doesn’t steal the moisture. Or, find a plastic pot of the same size and sit that inside the concrete pot. This will also create the necessary barrier and stop the concrete from drying out your soil so quickly.

Hope that helps!

Happy planting, people!

x

Little Plants Team

indoor plant in brass haning pot

What we love about Peperomias

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Ever heard of peperomias? Now you have 🙂

indoor plant in brass haning pot

Why are Peperomia plants awesome?

  • because plants are awesome, generally (but we may be biased)
  • solid, shapely leaves
  • variety of leaf shapes and colour shades
  • hardy (like so hardy!)
  • air-purifier
  • great for indoors
  • doesn’t need heaps of water

Do you need any more convincing?

Bulleen Art and Garden has some more great care tips here.

living gift Gold Coast houseplant in glass

Why put Plants inside Glass?

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There are a few reasons we often put plants inside glassware, here are some:

living gift Gold Coast houseplant in glass

Why Glass is Good for Little Plants:

  • It looks great! (that’s the main reason 🙂
  • Plants will use less water when protected like this
  • Many plants do well with a little extra humidity – putting them inside glassware will help with this
  • Provides some protection from drafts and air-con – if the position is windy or in an all-day air-con office, having smaller plants inside glass will help them to cope.

Things to look out for when planting in glass:

  • be sure to have sufficient pebbles in the base for drainage
  • don’t over-water
  • if there is no lid – keep the opening away from the draft direction
  • for a lidded container – take the lid off for a while if the humidity builds up too much
  • In a sunny position the glass may amplify the sun and heat, so keep an eye it’s not too hot, and if so move it slightly further into shade

Happy planting people!

There’s some cool ideas on how to do your own with succulents and cacti here, and even realestate.com has a great tutorial about making your own terrarium – with great pictures showing layering the pebbles and charcoal etc. check it out.

 

Plants for East-Facing Windows

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Window Plants

Our little studio faces east, so all we get is the morning sun. It’s a challenge to find plants that will do well with just that amount of light. You might have a challenging spot too, so here’s some things we have found that survive and thrive.

Rhipsalis / Mistletoe Cactus

These come in so many varieties. We have found them to be very hardy and tolerant to be inside with filtered light. You can see nice pictures of many other varieties here at The Succulent Garden.

Hoya

These also come in lots of different kinds, you will find they often have ‘collector’s tags’ if you are buying from the local nursery. They can handle fairly low light, but to flower they will need more light.

Jade Plant / Money Plant / Crassula

Although some crassula need more sunlight, there are a number of them that we have grown indoors with no problems, including crassula ovata (plantsonline has a good description of it), crassula gollum, and crassula hobbit (not to be confused with crassula gandalf. Just kidding. No, actually not kidding, it does exist…).

Sedum burrito

I’m not sure of other sedums, but this one is so wonderful, we’ve never had any trouble with it. It gets enough light from the window. A customer told me they even have it growing in their bathroom with no issues, and it’s even getting very long and is happy.

Chain of Hearts

Again, does well in the window. The main thing is like with the Zanzibar Gem, to make sure you don’t over-water it or it will rot the rhizomes (small potato-like things under the ground which the roots come from).

There’s other things too of course, but these our our top picks for the moment.