Dish Diva Planter

I love dishes. Old, new, the works. Problem is, you really only need so many creamers. However, I have a rather prolific aloe vera plant with wee ones looking for a new home. After I found a gorgeous turquoise Midwinter Modern Fashion Shape gravy boat/cream jug in a wee little Brownie Hall turned thrift shop, I decided it would make a great base for a succulent.

I filled the jug with cactus soil, gently pulled an aloe sprout and replanted in this little jug. I was so impressed with the results that I tried a second jug, the name of which I can't remember and I've since given as a birthday gift.

A note on Aloe plants, they supposedly only like to be watered once a month or they will turn brown, mine have done this so I've put them on a water diet. Except it was scorching hot last week and the tips started to dry up so I caved.

(the mother)

From cupboard to garden: My first terrerium

I ran out of flour this week. So I washed my flour jar, noted a big crack in the side and put it in the recycling.

Then I went to visit my family and saw my brother's latest, greatest: Terrarium. He's getting to be a bit of a pro when it comes to gardening in small glass spaces. I like to think I can take some credit for that. I invited him to join me in selling our wares at a craft fair a few years ago. We didn't really sell anything, but a few of the other venders were open to trades. So Ben did leave with at least one less wooden puzzle and one more pocket-sized mason jar garden.

Back to my kitchen, after seeing what wonders a glass jar can offer I gathered up some of my pet rocks, placed them in the bottom of my recovered jar, added cactus soil, and several offshoots from my succulents. I gave it a couple good sprays with my water bottle, lid off for now. Tada! If I were feeling more patient I might start over --- more soil in the bottom, then rocks, then a sprinkle more dirt, then the plants. But, I'm feeling a bit lazy so I will leave it as is and see how it fairs.

Bouquet: Old to New

I got some gorgeous flowers for my birthday this year. However, not all flowers have the same lifespan so while some flowers die after a few days, others will live on for a week or two.

Here I've separated out the yet living flowers from the old wilty ones and made a new mini bouquet.

Braiding Garlic

Growing garlic comes naturally enough in my fridge, despite that it's taken me years to actually get the bulbs out of my kitchen and into my little apartment side garden.

Last fall I decided to splurge for some farmer's market variety rather than the readily-sprouting mesh-bag in my fridge and planted it in my garden.

If forgot about it until Spring time when it started shooting up. Long curly scapes were snipped as per Salt Spring Island farmer's market garlic-growers to enhance the size of the bulbs. When the sun finally started shining I neglected to water my poor little bulbs so they dried up.

I washed the heads and braided the tails. They looked gorgeous on my kitchen wall until I stripped all the cloves down while making pickles. Half the purple heads were deskinned and pickled with the cucumbers while the other half are waiting to go back into the ground for more garlic next year!