Category Archive

Plants & Gardening

These posts cover vegetables, flower gardens, houseplants, and the trails and tribulations associated with them.

Composting with a PVC worm tube

I was sitting out on the deck one day and noticed my neighbor, Erin, bringing food scraps to a long pipe in her backyard. I knew it had to be composting, but I hadn’t seen it done in a tube before. Erin is a college student majoring in Environmental Studies so I knew she’d have awesome insight into composting, so I picked her brain for the infos.

How do I keep my air plant happy?

Hi, I’m Megan and I’m still displaying a sad dead plant on my shelf. Clearly others are keeping their air plants alive and happy… what am I missing here?

Use a spoon as a plant marker AND alleviate stress at the same time

If you want to use old spoons as garden markers, just follow these three steps.

66 things you can grow in a container

Organic Gardens Network put together a primo list of four dozen things YOU! can grow in a container. Given that you’ve got enough light, you can probably grow much more than you’ve thought of!

My favorite surprises: tree fruit! Hops! Herbal tea! Melons! And even a loofah.

From wrecked end table to rad planter

Maybe it was the paint fumes, but I had epiphany while turning an old bedside drawer into a plant stand… It’s not supposed to be a plant shelf — it’s a planter! A “tropical blossom” planter.

Astroturf alternatives: let’s talk about no-care groundcover

I’m not convinced astroturf is the way to go for my small yard. Does anyone have any ideas for groundcover that is real, requires no mowing, but still allows us to sit on a blanket and read or bask in the sun when the weather allows?

Make a hanging garden of jam jars

Love it. Rope + soil + clean jars and some succulents, and you have a hanging garden.

This would work super well with herbs, too, or small flowers like violets!

Build a greenhouse out of recyclables

‘Round my parts, it’s pretty damn easy to find old wood-framed windows. They come out of farmhouses, falling down foreclosed homes…I see them in so many projects I wonder if there isn’t a country-window-growing breed of tree propagating in the Midwest. Well, here’s a way to use ’em up.