Tag: indoor garden

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Propagating Fiddle Leaf Figs- Part 2

 

For those of you who didn’t get a chance to read our last post on my attempt to propagate my fiddle leaf figs (Propagating Fiddle Leaf Figs- Part 1), you can find that link here.  That post explains how I got started with my fiddle leaf figs. The following post is the follow up to how my figs did and what worked/didn’t work.

I originally started with 2 fiddle leaf fig clippings. The larger of the 2 didn’t make it. The smaller one however, thrived. While they both sprouted root buds the smaller clipping kept growing into full long roots and the larger clipping didn’t make it past the buds. Slowly all the leaves fell off and we had to chuck that one. I treated both clippings exactly the same: same water, same sunny location, same plant food. The only difference I can figure is the size. Perhaps the larger clipping was too large to sustain the size of the clipping and continue to grow in just a bowl of water. Lesson learned: start with smaller clippings next time.

More on the smaller clipping now:


Almost a month after I put the clippings in water I had a couple roots and a handful of small root buds on the smaller clipping.

3 days later, I finally got around to planting the clipping in soil. I just used a generic brand soil/fertilizer combo and planted the little clipping in this small pot.

Once the clipping was transplanted to a pot, I moved it outside to my front porch. It was still under roof, but I kept it on the edge of the porch so it would still catch some water from a heavy rain and get good indirect sunlight and a tiny bit of direct sunlight during certain parts of the day. I transplanted it in early May and the rain around here didn’t hit hard until June, so I just occasionally watered it. I didn’t follow a schedule or test the soil. I probably watered it maybe 5-6 times for the first month- and about 3-4 of those waterings happened just in the first week and a half. I’m admittedly no plant expert, but I just figured this guy was used to living in water, so I didn’t want him to get too dry in the soil.

And I guess my logical thinking paid off (or maybe it was just dumb luck) because exactly a month after transplanting it, I had a NEW leaf!

I was so excited to see that little leaf poking up through the middle. Finally, I had some proof that this little plant was actually growing! It seems like the leaves on these plants come in pairs and a day or two after this leaf poked through we saw a second one.

We went from 4 (original) leaves to 6! These leaves popped through in early June (which I heard from a gardener friend is prime time for growing fiddle leaf figs). Shortly after these leaves popped up, the rains came and this guy got so much water he probably didn’t know what to do with it- or maybe he did, which I why (after literally not touching this plant for the entire month of June) we got 2 more leaves!

The new leaves are a lighter color than the original dark green ones. So you can really see how much has changed since I first cut this little clipping.

I’m planning to let this guy grow a few more leaves and then try him inside as a house plant and see how he fares. In the meantime, I checked our large outdoor mature fiddle leaf figs (the ones that I cut all these clipping from) and they have new growth too, so I figured now might be an opportune time to propagate a couple more clippings.

Here we go again! Happy propagating friends.

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Our Dream Home- The Best Flip we will (hopefully) Never Make

We have come along way since June 2015 when we purchased our 3rd home.

Our house stats when we purchased it were:
3,534 sqft
5 bedrooms
4 bathrooms
Purchase price: $160,000
Appraisal value at purchase: $180,000

When we bought this house, we knew it would require a good amount of work. We spent $40,000 in improvements just in the first year, and the majority of that went toward mandatory or practical improvements (not the fun cosmetic stuff), but after a year of work, we can finally rest easy knowing that we made a good investment.

When we moved in to this house, we had insane house bills for the entire first year. Not only were we paying to fix things that needed fixing, but we had added insurance costs because our home had previously been a foreclosure. We also paid a much higher rate for very little insurance coverage due to the fact that we had cloth wiring and extremely old galvanized plumbing. Our electric bill was sky high in the hot months (which in Florida is about 360 days per year) because of old single-pane windows and very little insulation. Additionally the PMI (private mortgage insurance) we had to pay for not being able to put down a 20% down-payment tacked on almost $200 per month.

So we were on a mission to lower those costs in every way possible. We focused on material updates that would increase our home’s value (to help us get rid of our PMI), and also anything to help us lower our insurance costs or save on utilities. The updates we did in the first year included:

  • Replacing all the windows- $5,000
  • Replacing one of the A/C units- $1,000
  • Purchasing and installing all kitchen appliances (there were NONE originally)- $5,000
  • Paid handymen to remove above ground pool built into part of the deck and the deck that surrounded it- $1,200
  • Replacing all galvanized plumbing- $5,000
  • Replacing and updating electrical (removing cloth wires)- $2,500
  • Drywall repair after redoing plumbing and electrical- $3,000
  • Installing a home security system complete with smart-home thermostats and smoke detectors- $100
  • Redoing the hall bathroom (the sub-floor under the tile was moldy from a small leak that was never fixed and when you walked on the tile floor it moved similar to that of a trampoline under your feet)- $2,000
  • Purchasing and installing doors (multiple rooms didn’t have any doors- thus the beauty of buying a foreclosure)- $600
  • Fixing leak in sports room ceiling/reworking lighting/drywall repair- $1,500
  • Replacing lights in kitchen with recessed can lighting- $500
  • DIY wall install in master bedroom to make a walk through closet- $300
  • Built in IKEA closets- $1,900
  • Reworking lighting in upstairs master bedroom and relocating some wall outlets in the nursery- $1,000
  • Drywall repair and painting for upstairs- $1,000
  • Replacing upstairs floors (including 2 bedrooms and stair landing) and stairs with hardwood floors- $5,200
  • Adding foam insulation in walls and attic throughout the house- $800
  • DIY painting interior walls, purchasing and installing light fixtures (where there were none) and other minor DIY fixes- $2,400
    Total first year costs: $40,000

After a year, we were hopeful that our updates combined with the housing market’s natural climb would get us an appraisal  of at least $200k to allow us to cancel our PMI payments. (In order to cancel PMI manually, you have to purchase and order an appraisal on your home and it has to come back at least 20% above your original home loan price).

Our current home stats are:
3,534 sqft
5 bedrooms
4 bathrooms
Purchase price: $160,000
Appraisal value at purchase: $180,000
Appraisal value 1 year later: $275,000

After a year of hard work, staying focused on our budget and gritting our teeth while putting our hard earned money into many practical things that will possibly never be seen (i.e. plumbing and electrical), we are proud to say that our home appraised $115,000 more than we purchased it for and with an overall investment of $200,000 ($160,000 purchase price + $40,000 renovations), that gives us a net equity value of $75,000! Also, after cancelling our PMI and making the necessary updates per our insurance requirements, we were able to get solid home insurance coverage and reduce our monthly payments by almost $400.

We are in our dream house and we don’t have plans to flip this house anytime soon, but it’s comforting to know that we wouldn’t be underwater if we had to sell.  In the meantime, stick around, follow along as we work our way through our home updates and renovations. Now that we’re through the worst of the mandatory fixes, we can finally focus on the fun stuff.

Next up: Backyard makeover!

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Propagating Fiddle Leaf Figs- Part 1

I love fiddle leaf figs! I have heard they made very hardy indoor house plants and I just love the way they look. I love them so much, I wouldn’t be unhappy having one in just about every room of my house.

The problem? They are not cheap! You can get a really small seedling for around $20, but most medium-sized plants range anywhere from $60 – $160. And considering how many of them I want, $20 a piece isn’t really a viable option either. So about a month ago I decided to try to propagate them.

Let me preface by saying that we were lucky enough to have 3 HUGE fiddle leaf figs planted in our backyard before we bought it. So we’ve got some figs to work with. This is a shot of our fiddle leaf figs. They are way too big to transplant and bring inside – no we don’t have 20-foot ceilings.

But with so much plant to work with, I thought I’d try my hand at propagating! I am no horticulturist, but I have heard that some people have luck putting clippings in water to get roots started. So I tried that.

I cut a pretty big clipping because I thought that if I could get it to sprout roots it might be better to start with a larger plant. However I have also had luck  with just a single leaf sprouting large amount of roots over the course of a few months. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow-up with care and maintenance on that little leaf and he didn’t make it in his pot once he was relocated. This time I took 2 of these clippings and put them in vases and filled them with enough water that the stems were submerged about 3-4 inches up the stem. I’m hoping that maybe a larger clipping will be a bit hardier than the small single leaf clipping I tried before. I kept them on my kitchen table which is about 4 feet away from a large south-facing window. So they have a good amount of filtered indirect sunlight throughout the day.

Here’s a photo of the 2 clippings in their vases:


Since planting them just a little over a month ago, I have changed out their water a few times to keep it fresh and I have added 2 tablespoons of this plant food that I just happened to have sitting around:


This stuff came with my AeroGarden that I got for Christmas last year. (The best thing for growing indoor herbs and veggies)


After exactly 1 month of being in water, I already had root buds!

This was the smaller clipping after 1 month:

And the larger clipping after 1 month:

I’ll keep you posted with the progress as they continue to grow. Here’s to hoping they will one day look as good as this one!

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8 Low Maintenance House Plants – From Someone with a Black Thumb

I recently got a question about what type of house plants I have in my home. So I thought I would go into detail about what I’ve had that’s lasted. I’m no horticulturist, so this post will not be delving into the ideal living situations or advice on achieving maximum growth, but rather sharing the plants I have had that are able to survive with very little work.

These are the most low maintenance plants you can get, so if you have a black thumb (like me) but still want to green-up your home, these are the plants for you!
Note: Succulents are not on this list, because I have had my share of succulents and killed them all.

1. Sansevieria (AKA Mother-in-law’s tongue or Snake Plant)

We have 2 of these in our home. The one pictured here has been sitting in this same spot for over a year (and it’s still alive!). I picked up this plant about the size that it is now from my local garden store and literally just transferred it into this empty pot. I didn’t add dirt or fertilizer. This pot doesn’t drain (since it resides indoors) and I usually think to water it once every week or two. It doesn’t sit in front of a window and I haven’t taken it outside at all, but you can see in the picture that it’s in a room with some indirect sunlight that comes from the window in the opposite corner. It hasn’t grown much, but it’s survived and I haven’t had to pull off any brown leaves. It also doesn’t wilt at all. So I’m happy to say this one wins the award for the number 1, easiest plant to care for.

2. Aloe Vera Plant

We have a small aloe plant in our kitchen that has survived 3 moves and is now happily living in our landlocked, windowless kitchen with no direct or indirect sunlight. I have moved it to a window sill for a couple days at a time, maybe 3 times in the 1 1/2 years that we have lived in our current home. This is an easy one to keep alive and there are so many good uses for aloe too. The only thing I learned (the hard way) is that too much water will make the leaves brown on this one. Ironically, the only plant I think to water regularly is the one that does better with the least amount of water. This one sits right behind the faucet on our kitchen sink, so it’s the easiest to keep watered, but I learned to keep watering to a minimum with my aloe.
Pineapple planter from CB2.

3. Pothos Plant

Can I just say that these vine-y plants are my absolute favorite right now? They are cheap to buy and because of the ever-growing vine, they add a lot of green to the room with relatively no work. We’ve had this one sitting on our piano for over a year now. It has done well with being watered once every couple weeks. It’s taken a couple longer stints with no water and I noticed some browning around the leaves and vines and I just watered it a couple days in a row after that and it greened back up. Overall this is a pretty easy indoor plant to take care of.

Disclaimer: As I was googling the official names of these plants for reference, I read that this one is actually poisonous to cats/dogs/small children if its eaten. We have all 3 of those living in our home. The article I read did say that a small amount ingested is not fatal, but just tends to make pets/babies sick, but I think it’s worth mentioning. The good thing about this plant is that it looks best sitting up high on a self with the ivy trailing across or down and you can also hang it to avoid any possible mishaps with your pets or babies.

4. Philodendron

These are very similar to the pothos plants. I think this is technically called a “golden philodendron”. They also have them in a darker green color which makes it even harder to tell them apart. These tend to be a little bigger than pothos plants though. I bought this golden philodendron at the same time that I bought the previous pothos plant. They were almost exactly the same size when I bought them and this one has grown much faster and much bigger. I water this one even less than most of the other plants I mentioned above because this one sits in the back corner of our family room so it gets forgotten often when I am watering the other plants in the entryway. This one hangs in front of a window, but because the window faces out to our covered back porch and shaded backyard, this one probably doesn’t get much more sun than the ones in my entryway. This one has definitely grown and stayed alive with very little work. I have had to trim some brown leaves every now and then probably just because I don’t water it as much as I should, but overall this one is very black-thumb friendly.

5. Peace Lily Plant

This is a picture of my peace lily (above). When I bought it, it had a few of these pretty white flowers (pictured below)

This plant is a natural air purifier! I’ve heard that the more light your peace lily has, the more it will bloom with the white flowers. Since I’ve been keeping mine inside with minimal indirect sunlight through the window in our entryway, it hasn’t bloomed at all, but it is still alive and growing. Every now and then a leaf will turn brown. So I just pluck it off and water it some more. This plant has proved to need a little more watering than the others I have shared thus far. The good news is that this one lets you know when it needs water by wilting. So whenever I notice it looking wilted, I water it and it perks right back up. It’s been very hardy in that sense. Even though this one does take a little extra watering, I’m including it on the list because it’s a hard one to kill. As long as you don’t lock it in a room where you’ll never see it and if you keep a reasonably good eye on when it starts looking wilted, this one will pull through.

6. Air Plant

I’m including these on the list because they are generally easy enough to keep alive, although as a disclaimer to cat owners, I’m convinced that cats have the magic touch to kill these puppies. Perhaps its the fact that they slightly resemble spiders, but our cat has killed 2 out of 3 of them. When I first got this plant, I bought 3 identical ones and not only has my cat managed to knock over 2 out of 3 of them causing the concrete planter to literally disappear (I’ve pulled every piece of furniture out of the entryway to paint the walls and the mini concrete planter still didn’t turn up), but she ripped one apart and the other I saved, but it died outside of its little personal planter. So i’m not quite sure what the trick is to these, but I’d say you’re probably better off if you don’t have a crazy cat in your house. The lone air plant has done well. I’ve had this one for about 9 months. When I think to water the plants in the entryway, I just pull this guy out of the concrete planter and submerge it in the water for about 10 seconds, then I take it out and let it air-dry. Barring any CATastrophes (pun intended) these make good indoor house plants.
I bought these plants with the concrete planters from Frae and Co’s Etsy shop.

7.  Plastic Succulents

I know I said I wasn’t including succulents in this post, but these are plastic succulents. And no, that isn’t a species of succulent, it’s just the material they are made out of – as in, non-living, “fake” houseplants. They aren’t air-purifying, but they are hypoallergenic (as long as you keep them dusted). I wasn’t planning to include any fake plants in this post, but then I stopped by Target yesterday to pick up a few things and I found these babies in the discount section – you know, that little area right off to the side with tons of $1, $3, and $5 items that tricks you into spending $30 on small trinkets/decor/kids toys because everything is such a steal? It gets me every time. But $3 a piece for these?!? I was very close to buying 10 of them right there! I’m proud to announce that I only bought 3 of them and I haven’t gone back to buy more… yet. I seriously love succulents, but I just don’t understand all these people saying that they are easy to take care of. I have had probably 15 different types of succulents in my home just in the last year and a half and not one of them remains. So for now, I’m giving up hope on succulents and enjoying these maintenance-free $3 beauties.

8. Fiddle Leaf Fig

To be fair, I don’t technically have one of these inside my home yet, although I have heard good things about these making nice houseplants. I absolutely love the look of these and seriously want one in just about every room. Buying a mature one gets pretty pricey – I’ve seen prices ranging from $50 – $150 for one about the size pictured above. Fortunately for me, our backyard has 3 giant ones growing in it right now. Now I know it’s a bit different, but the trees we have in our backyard have not been touched/trimmed/watered/dusted since we moved in and although they have had the natural elements to help them along, they seem to be easy enough to keep alive judging on how much they’ve grown outside in just 1 1/2 years. To give you an idea here’s a before and after picture of them:

Before: This picture was taken in July 2015.

After: This picture was taken in January 2017

It’s a little hard to tell, but you can see that they have grown immensely if you check out the height in reference to the deck railing on the left. I’m currently attempting to propagate a couple clippings from these – pictured below:

I clipped off a decent sized chunk of leaves and it’s currently sitting in this pot of water. I’m hoping to encourage some root growth from this and then planning on transferring it to a pot with soil. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes, but if these grow even half as well as they have outside, then I’ll be happy I included them on the list. Also, I’m looking forward to possibly multiplying my fiddle leaf figs without dropping $50+ on ones from a garden store. I’m saving this post from Balcony Garden Web as a reference for caring for my fiddle leaf figs once they get potted.

What other indoor house plants have you had success with? I’d love suggestions on ones that I can add to my low maintenance indoor collection!