Rosie and mints

Rosie (my birthday gift from my mom) has been planted into her pot and is soaking up the sun outside.  I can't wait to see how she grows and flourishes.

I've planted my mints into a planter now. One is chocolate mint, which smells like a peppermint flavoured chocolate and the other is peppermint, destined for many cups of peppermint tea.

The syrofoam container that I have used for the planter was from the fruit and veg shop and I have pierced holes in the side, about an inch from the bottom of the inside of the container, to allow excess water to drain, but still allow there to be some water storage at the base.  I have used this one with much success previously.

Self watering plant pots from yogurt containers

So far the lettuce in the soda bottle SIP are doing well. 

I made a second one from a smaller bottle and have planted a purple or white daisy in it.  I was concerned it wouldn't survive being moved from a less than ideal spot between the pavers to the pot, but it seems to have.

I also stumbled on another gem with some 1L yogurt containers. The beauty of these are they nest beautifully making a natural reservoir for the water without any cutting or addition of extra bits. All I needed to do was make some holes in the bottom and thread some yarn though them and get ready to plant.

First you need 2 of these containers.  Make sure they have been cleaned properly as you don't want your plants to suffer from mouldy, sour dairy products.

Next. Make a few holes at the bottom, and thread your yarn through them.

I tide a knot making a loop at the top so that they stay put and can spread the water.

Then you can nest them, the prepared on into the untouched one, and they are ready to serve as an awesome SIP for your next plant.  They are snug enough not to have an evaporation problem, but still separate easily so when it comes time to top up the reservoir, its simple.

The ease of this makes so much sense, and the way my kids homemade frozen yogurt pops, I could be overrun with these one of these days.

Stock photography update

I checked my stock images I uploaded and two were accepted and have been made public!!!! Very thrilled about that.  I just have to keep getting more images to upload and making more too.  Woohoo!

Rosemary topiary

Right, gardening adventure no. two.

I've taken a few cuttings from the huge rosemary bush we have outside.  The plan is to make topiaries from them to give as gifts. A well thought out and very forward planned Christmas project.

I've stripped the foliage from the bottom half of the stems and stuck them into a vase of water which I'll keep refreshing every so often.  I've found in the past that if I "forget" my cuttings they thrive, but when I panda them they don't grow. Go figure.

So, let's see how that works...

Wicking potted plants

After looking at the Styrofoam box in my laundry for 3 weeks I have finally turned it into a self irrigating pot (SIP).  When Missy was still at her old school we learned how to do this during an after school activity. It's not difficult to do and there are many posts on the Web as to how to make them.

I also made a coke bottle SIP the other day with some lettuce seeds in it.

The Styrofoam planter has herbs in it, given to me by my mother-in-law. I was thrilled to get them and knew they were exactly what I had been waiting for to actually get my bee into gee and make the SIP.

I hope to post updates of the progress of both planters and some other adventures I have on the go.