Two Enchanting Miniature Gardens

A few days ago, we got a brief break from the snowy winter weather by attending the 2015 Boston Flower Show.  The theme this year was 'Season of Enchantment', and I have to share with you one of the most enchanting parts of the show - the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's miniature gardens competition.

Each miniature garden is in a box and viewed through a glass window that is about 2 feet wide and a foot and a half high.  The gardens are judged on how it represents a larger garden, with a scale of 1 inch equalling 1 foot, at least for the part in the foreground.  Combining both horticulture and design on an intricate, scaled-down level, the results are impressive and amazing.

There were two entries at the Boston Flower Show this year.  The first one, by Gloria Freitas Steidinger, is titled 'The Lot Was Pasteurized', and shows a charming scene of a home in the woods.  It is complete with miniature lambs frisking through the front yard, a water feature with a swimming swan, miniature moose or elk surveying the scene from atop a cliff, and tractors resting in the nearby field.

I love all the little plants and moss that help create the scene.  So cute!

The second miniature garden was created by Debi Hogan and Warren Leach, and shows an enchanting scene of a playhouse up in the trees, complete with vines and children's playthings. Birdhouses hang in nearby trees, and a stone path leads to a picnic table and chairs behind the playhouse, completing the look of a miniature backyard retreat.

The variety of plants used was astounding.  It truly looked like a lush, miniature backyard garden, full of bushes, trees, vines, grasses, and even flowers.  Can you believe this was all done with little tiny plants?

I wish I would have taken even more pictures of all the little details going on in the two gardens - it's worth clicking on the pictures above to enlarge them so you can see how many things are going on.  The miniature gardens truly were enchanting, and just seeing them makes me itch to get some tiny plants and make a miniature garden of my own in a terrarium or something!  I don't remember seeing the miniature gardens competition when I went to the Boston Flower Show last year, but from now on I know to be on the lookout.  So charming!

Some (after) Christmas Cacti

The only houseplants I own are safely locked away in terrariums due to a cat that enjoys her leafy greens a little too much.  I've actually loved houseplants from a young age (during one of our moves as a kid I tenderly stuffed a fairly large asparagus fern into a box and carried it on an airplane).  So I especially enjoy seeing my mother-in-law's beautiful collection of houseplants when we visit.

Lots of buds!

Among my favorite are her Christmas cacti.

My mother-in-law says they are fairly easy to care for.  They don't need much water (it is a cactus, albeit a tropical one, after all), and they don't even need much light.

a bud about to bloom

Her plants are around five or six years old. She says they are also fairly easy to propagate from stem cuttings.

The flowers of the Christmas cactus are exotically beautiful.  Though with how my mother-in-law arranges them, the plants look amazing all year long even when not in flower.

Christmas cactus placed in a glass seashell with stones

Oh, how I do miss having houseplants!  

Anyone want a veggie-loving cat?

With this Kale, I now Pronounce that you have Turned into your Mother

As similar as I am to my mother, there were several things we disagreed on growing up.

I didn't understand why in the world we would need to make our beds when we were just going to sleep in them again that night.  I vowed that when I grew up, I would never tell my children 'because I told you so.' Being forced to eat whole grain bread was cruel and unusual punishment (and let's not even talk about spinach).  And I certainly didn't understand how anyone could stand to watch that many episodes of the extremely boring home improvement show 'This Old House'.

Our differences also stretched to the garden.  Those blue Hydrangeas that my mom loved?  I informed her that blue flowers and green leaves do NOT match.  Irises?  Pretty flowers, but those leaves are too poky-looking.  And in the fall when she bought Ornamental Kale, I thought they were the ugliest plants alive.  Who in the world would buy a plant that looks like it should belong in (ugh) a salad?

Of course, now that I am grown up, my tastes have changed.  I love Hydrangeas and blue flowers of any kind.  I find myself looking for the types of Irises that my mom used to grow when I was young.  My dislike of Ornamental Kale, however, held out for quite some time...

...until this year when I was looking for something to fill a fall-blooming container.

Well, since planted the Kale has edged out most of the pansies and pushed a little Juniper to the side in its quest for Gigantic Awesomeness.  And you know what?  I find that I don't mind a bit.  In fact, I wonder how in the world I could dislike this plant for so long.

Oh, the brilliant fall color!  The beautifully veined leaves!  

And after a frost?  Divine!

So I do apologize to my mother for criticizing her planting choice for so long.  I am now off to go lie on my neatly made bed and watch some home improvement television after feeding my kids a healthy supper that included whole grains.

Hey, at least I didn't serve them spinach.

Making Terrariums - So Simple a Child Could Do It

What is a gardener to do in the wintertime when he or she needs their plant fix?
Start an indoor garden, of course! 

Terrariums are all the rage right now, and as they seem like a possible solution to my houseplant-munching cat, I enjoyed making a couple of them this winter.

Terrarium: a glass container, chiefly or wholly enclosed, for growing and displaying plants

Terrariums being sold at the hardware store

Now that they are so popular, it is a lot easier finding a variety of little plants for terrariums that were previously not available locally.

Fittonia albivenis (white), Palm seedling, Hypoestes (red), Fern

 Of course, as soon as my kids saw the first terrarium I made, they wanted to make one, so out came the old goldfish bowls out of storage. 

(RIP Fishy 1 and Fishy 2)

How to Make a Terrarium

Step 1: Choose a glass container, either open or closed, and clean thoroughly.  Choose your container with your plants in mind - some plants enjoy the high humidity of a closed terrarium, while other plants need more air circulation.

Step 2:  Put clean rocks, sand, or marbles in the bottom for drainage.  

This was actually my kids' favorite step - going outside and collecting rocks for their terrarium kept them quite busy for a good hour or two!  (This is of course much easier when you have an extremely mild winter and no snow..)

My more decorative river rocks

Step 3:  If you have a closed container, put a few spoonfuls of activated charcoal over the rocks to filter the air and prevent the buildup of bad microorganisms and odors.  You can find it at the pet store in the aquarium section (sometimes it will be labeled as activated carbon).

Step 4:  If desired, put a layer of moss or a mesh to prevent the soil from falling down into your decorative rocks.  You can use sphagnum moss or landscape fabric or any sheer fabric.  I used a strip of sheet moss I had, turned upside down.

Step 5:  Plant your plants, using a light potting soil.

Hmm... this one is still going to have to go up high out of reach of the cat..

Some common plants for terrariums include Fittonia albivenis (also known as Nerve Plant), certain types of Begonias, orchids, ferns, Peperomia, and Hypoestes (also known as Polka Dot Plant).  Make sure to choose a grouping of plants that all prefer the same light and humidity levels. 

Clockwise from top left:  Fittonia albivenis (pink), Fittonia albivenis (small and white), Palm seedling, Hypoestes (red), Fern

Step 6:  Add any decorative items you would like.  My four-year-old added rocks and glitter hearts to her terrarium.

My four-year-old's terrarium: Fittonia albivenis (pink), Fittonia albivenis (red)

My two year old added the rest of her rocks on top and left me to finish with sheet moss - she just wanted to go outside and collect more rocks!

My two-year-old's terrarium: Fittonia albivenis (pink), button fern

Step 7:   Lightly water your plants (the lightly part being the hardest step for kids - I suggest a spray bottle) and set in a location that gets the proper amount of light.   Most terrarium plants like a decent amount of indirect light but not direct light. 

Water the terrarium every once in a while when the soil starts getting dry.  If you have a closed terrarium, you will need to let it air out every few weeks and be careful not to overwater (especially with little kids that looove to water).

My four-year-old's terrarium

As you can see, making a terrarium is so simple even a child could do it!

Now keeping it alive, that's another story...

Mixing and Matching

Ahh.. sitting down with some gardening books on a cozy winter's evening..

A online Gardening Book Review is going on over at the blog Roses and Other Joys, and I decided to join in the fun this month.  I wanted to review a new book that I got, but sadly have not finished it!  The problem is, there is so much I want to read about, I am usually flipping through/reading several gardening books, mixing and matching to suit my mood.  

We won't even talk about the magazines... 

So I am going to review one of the earliest gardening books I got a few years ago - one that I have actually finished reading!  It is quite a fun book (interactive even!), and suits the mood of my garden reading style quite well:

The Mix and Match Garden Color Guide to Annuals and Perennials (whew, that's a name!) is by Graham Strong and Alan Toogood and has a lot of great advice about combining plants in the garden.  It talks a lot about all the basics, combining colors, shapes, and plant textures for great combinations of plantings.  It talks about pattern, repetition, and scale when planting flower beds.  Then comes the good part - it shows some really great combinations of plants and gives several great projects to do as well as several small garden designs, all with fabulous pictures.

The picture above is one of my favorite in the book, as it started my love affair with ranunculuses (also called Persian buttercup).  I had never seen a ranunculus before reading this book, and after seeing this picture I just had to get some the next spring.

My yellow ranunculuses

I actually tried to find some double daisies to go with them, just like the combination featured in the book, but was unable to find any in the garden stores at that time, sadly. 

Ah, but we're not done yet!

After the fabulous small garden designs and little plant combining projects comes the fun, interactive part of the book...

Photo flip cards!!

I love to flip through pictures in gardening books so this is a perfect book for me.

There are 240 photo flip cards that help the reader see how different plants would look grouped together.  There are four cards/plants per page.  The taller plants are in the top row, the middle sized plants are in the middle two rows, and the short plants are in the bottom flip cards.  Thus you can get a better feel for how the plants would look in combination in the garden.  The cards are mostly made up of annuals and perennials, but there is also a small section that includes shrubs.

Would this combination look nice?

On the other side of the page (on the back of the previous flip cards), it considerately gives all the planting information for that species. 

Honestly, it's just fun to play with the cards and see what combinations one can come up with!

 

 Now if I can just stop flipping through different books and finish one for my next garden book review...

Houseplants on Beds of Moss

For the New Year we were up in the Northeast, visiting relatives of Mr. Red House.  My mother-in-law is a gardener and has a beautiful collection of houseplants.  I love seeing them, especially since I don't currently have any houseplants, mainly due to a cat who can't resist munching on anything even remotely green.  (You should see the begging that goes on in my house whenever I eat a salad.)

I love my mother-in-law's exquisite collection of containers.  She keeps an extensive container garden outside during the summer months, but then brings many of them in for the winter.  Looking a little closer, the plants are made even more beautiful by her overwintering habit of covering the soil with soft pieces of woodland moss.

She does this as a mulch to keep moisture in and prevent the plants from drying out too quickly. 

(Thus one would not want to do this with succulents and other arid plants.)

The moss even kept enough moisture in for some seedlings to grow, such as these impatiens that grew up out of the moss.

I just love the beds of moss because they look beautiful.

Even a dead plant looks pretty good when it's nestled in moss in a beautiful container!

Honestly, just a container of moss looks good. 

Cup o' Moss

Can you tell I love moss?  If I ever get a houseplant again, I'll have to plant a bed of moss at the base.

Do you think my plant-munching cat would try to get into a terrarium?

A Container for Summer and Fall

Petunias, annual lobelia, and variegated vinca vine in the front, autumn joy sedum in the middle, and spike dracaena in the back.

The autumn joy sedum will be flowering soon with pink flowers, adding another dimension.  Several of these plants I was thrilled to buy at a big home and gardening store for mere nickels.  Check those summer sales - I have found great deals on plants, though they often require a little extra love.