6 Months of Fiddlin'

Guess what!  I haven't killed my fiddle leaf fig trees yet!  And it's been 6 months!  That's quite the accomplishment for me.  I'm not exactly known for my green thumb especially with houseplants.  Succulents rarely have a chance around me- I kill them with water, and I kill other plants that need water with neglect.  oops. But BOTH fiddle leafs are still going strong! (ish)

Hector, my IKEA fiddle leaf suffered an early setback (as I mentioned in my first fig post) and got very very very mad at me for over-watering him and letting him sit in the puddle.  Thankfully, he's been making a promising comeback with new growth.

Charlie is not impressed.

Yes, Hector's not looking his best, but he's on the mend.  That's what I keep telling myself.

Even though all his original leaves are either gone or brown, he's got a bunch of new leaves including 2 currently sprouting.  Maybe there's hope for him yet!

At least if I kill this one, it's only a $13 IKEA plant as opposed to my other, nursery born fiddly dude, Victor:

He's much much happier.  I haven't tried to kill him once! (Sir Charlie Bear was following me around as I was taking these photos.  I think he was practicing for his Top Model audition).

This little fig tree is much much happier than his upstairs counterpart.  Aside from watering (after being repotted into a self-watering pot with plenty of drainage to prevent over-watering...), the only other upkeep these guys get is a bit of Miracle Grow Leaf Shine.  My endorsement is not sponsored, it just makes the leaves look bright and shiny.  See?

So shiny they almost look fake.  But not.

My mom's the one who's really knocking this whole fiddle leaf thing outta the park.  I picked her up an IKEA one when I got Hector and they were just about the same size and health.  Now 6 months later I have never seen a happier plant- it's jumped up by over a foot and a half!  If it keeps at this rate, my parents will need to cut a hole in the ceiling for it.

Her 'secret' is that she waters it a little every time it feels dry and it loves it's window.  She's like the plant whisperer or something.  Clearly not a trait I was passed.  Whenever I'm reminded of how lush Hector was when I brought him home (before the incident), I just wish I could find another in stock at IKEA, but the IKEA fiddle leaf figs are like the chupacabra- some have seen it, but many doubt it's existence.  One day, IKEA, one day.

Have you had luck not killing fiddle leaf figs?  I'd love to hear your secrets!

I'm super excited for the coming weeks, I have several projects up my sleeve that I'm hoping to finish up and share.  Good things are coming! Stay tuned!

Outdoor Update

This is one of those years where summer seems to be wizzing past even though it's just started.  Where has it gone already?!  I'm totally behind with our gardens and haven't even finished mulching the veggie garden.  I feel like this should get finished before July hits.... tomorrow... we'll see what kind of motivation I come home from Grover with tonight. Nothing has changed drastically in my back yard/garden in the past year, but I like to share it here each year anyway- it's like my little garden year book.

It's going to be positively paradise once the hydrangea start blooming.  It's my little suburban sanctuary.  When everything is in full bloom late summer, and I've hopefully finished mulching, I'll give you the full 2014 yarden (yard/garden) tour- which will probably look very similar to 2013's.  Between the front, back, and sides of the house, our yard takes 30 bags of mulch and only has 170sf of grass.  Definitely skewed a bit, but I'd rather play in gardens then mow a huge lawn any day.

The newest addition to our yard is a monstrous rain barrel.  I convinced Hubby that we needed one for when our town institutes a water ban (usually during a long hot spell in the summer) and we still need to water the veggies.  When I tried to put the barrel directly under the water spout as I originally intended, however, it looked gargantuan and beyond ridiculous.  I settled on hiding it in a corner, but now have to deal with re-routing the downspout.

Although I ventured to Home Depot for all the parts (which I did get), I got distracted by picking out plants for Grover and subsequently spent my afternoon playing in the dirt at the flip instead of installing my own rain barrel.  I have a feeling this will be the story of my life for the next couple weeks.  We are T minus 14 days before we hope to list Grover, the latest fliphouse.  One-track mind may not even begin to cover it.  I'll do my best not to talk exclusively flip here.  I wouldn't want to bore you with daily updates of what trim I painted or what light fixture I installed.  Enthralling, I know, but I'll keep it to my weekly updates.

Returning to my own abode and veering slightly off topic- guest what finally got ordered!!!!!

After 3.5 years of complaining about my over-sized budget furniture store sofa, he's getting replaced with the gorgeous Diane from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams!  She's certainly a splurge and will be the most we've spent on any piece of furniture ever.... but I intend on having this pretty lady around for a very long time.  Now I only have to wait about 8 weeks for her to come in (sadface).  Oh well, at least she's ordered!!!  Can you tell I'm excited?

I'll be daydreaming of my new velvetty sofa whilst I manage to cover myself with dirt, mulch, and paint over at Grover.  Happy Monday all!

Herbaceous

It was a pleasant surprise on Saturday when the predicted rain decided to clear long enough for Hubby and I to get started on this year's garden.  Since the weather was still threatening a downpour while we were at the garden store, we only bought about half of what will end up filling up the garden, but we're off to a good start!  Until we plant a bit more and put down some fresh mulch, the flower beds are nothing to write home about (mid-summer will be a different story- flower explosion and I love it!). My current quandary is the herb garden.  After planting 7 new herbs this weekend, I'm left wondering what I want this baby to look like this year.  Aside from some minor leaf cleanup, all we've done is place the new herbs in last year's set-up.

For the past 2 years, I've had the herb garden planted in pots, 'planted' in the ground (inspired by this) and I've liked the look.  With fresh mulch and flowering peonies on the left, it looked pretty sharp.  But this year I'm itching for something different.  I'm thinking of going vertical.

This vertical garden from Better Homes and Gardens would probably be the easiest.  Hubby loves the idea of smaller pots that can be brought inside in the winter.  I love the idea of making the herb garden into living art.  Win/win!

This lattice garden from Hammers and High Heels might be even simpler, but still clean, classy, and effective.

Naturally, I'm gravitating to the more complicated set-ups:

More complicated, yes, but Curbly spells out all the steps on their How-To.

This one from Ryan Benoit Designs is probably a little too industrial for my own yard, but it makes me swoon nonetheless.  Yes, those are ammunition canisters.

Back to simplicity

This indoor mason jar version is very simple and chic.  For years I couldn't find the original source for this image, even google image search leads me back to pinterest, but a friend was able to locate the designer.  This project, by Suzie Frazier is stunning, don't you think?  I'd need to scale this up for an outside application, but this would be a great idea for easy herb access in your kitchen.

My brain has all of these beautiful examples swirling around in it, and I have a feeling that the application that I decide to attack will be a conglomeration of them all.

Which one is your favorite?

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