Street Style: Red Rubber Planter

Nothing like a nice red rubber planter to brighten up a drab sidewalk scape.  It even brings out the green in the industrial door frame — even with no plant inside.

I can’t for the life of me find where to get one of these online.  Any help?

Vintage Remix: Copper Bowl

April 27th: Succulent Success, originally uploaded by Jess and Colin.

This weekend I was talking about taking on a serious plant re-potting project. That is, uprooting most of your plants and playing musical chairs with their containers.

But maybe you need some new planters for your plants. And if that’s the case I recommended some less-than-conventional containers: fish bowls, wastepaper bins, cookware…

Doesn’t this succulent look bright and cheery in this vintage copper bowl? Vintage copper cookware is relatively easy to find and as long as you’re not watering whatever plants you house in them (that’s why succulents — get it?), you don’t have to worry about root poisoning or damage to the container.

Something I think would look really cool: a row of 3 copper bowls with succulent gardens across a coffee table or entryway table. Yes? You’re feeling me?

These copper bowls are easy to find at thrift stores and yard sales.  Or — shameless plug: if you like what you see, I have one such copper bowl for sale on Etsy!

Weekend Project: Re-pot the Plants!

Okay, admittedly I didn’t do this on a weekend.  I started at 8:30 at night and proceeded to nearly destroy my kitchen before the whole mess was over some time after midnight.  I’m still digging the dirt out from under my fingernails.  All that and I really don’t have too much in the way of before and after pictures to show you — you have to squint your eyes to see the plants in the “before” photos in these side-by-side pictures.  (See? This blog is horribly lacking in before and afters.  By the way if you want to fix that, or anything else about BackGarage, please consider becoming a guest blogger.)

But here’s the deal: if you’re a plant person, every once in a while you see that certain of your little green friends aren’t feeling happy in whatever vessel you’ve housed them in.  They pale, they wilt, they start turning brown.  And then to make matters worse, because they’re becoming unsightly, you stick them in a dark corner and the cycle gets worse.  (This happens to you, right?)

You start forming an adversarial relationship with your own houseplants.  Not only because they’re not working with you, but also because their leaf tantrums and uncooperativeness is forcing you to shun whatever pretty receptacle you’ve placed them in.  That awesome Haeger planter you paid 12 bucks for at an estate sale?  Gone to pot!

Well, here’s the solution: a massive replanting.  Do houseplants have to spend their entire domestic lives trapped in one piece of ceramic?  No!  Liberate them!

Here how:

1. Round up all the plants you’re sick of seeing freak out in the pots they’re in.
2. Round up any free or empty planters you have — or things that make good planters. These could be: fishbowls, Pyrex bowls, glass jars, plastic wastepaper bins — get creative!



3. Start the old switcheroo.  Unpot one plant and re-house it in the container of another or one of your rounded up receptacles.
4. Repeat!
5. Rearrange the plants — in their new planters — around the house in different ways.

And there you have it — a brand new look without spending a dime!  And you and your plants are friends again.

Inspiration Folder: Air Plants

I recently came across some stunning photos on Flickr while searching for photos of air plants.  These photos showcased the Bromeliad Tillandsia (the air plant’s real name) in the most stunning array of vintage ceramics, glassware and (!!) labware, and they all belonged to a Massachusettes-based Etsy seller named Kim, and her shop,  trampoline.

Her photostream, and subsequently her Etsy shop, was a reminder of how versatile the air plant can be as a piece of home decor.  It fits anywhere, doesn’t require a lot of care or — and here’s the kicker — dirt.  So you can house an air plant in any piece of vintage ceramicware, no matter how well-suited it is as an actual container for plant life.  (Take my Shawnee deer planter, for instance. Think real plants can grow in there?  Think again.  But it would fit an air plant nicely.) And a single air plant, depending on its size, is pretty cheap. They range in price from $2- $8, depending on where in the country you’re located.

Check out these inspiring photos from Kim’s Etsy shop:

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