Beyond the Wood Decorating with plants, DIY, farmhouse style

I love decorating with plants!

Happy May! Wow can you believe May already! Yikes this year is flying by.

Today’s post is all about plants. Truth be told I LOVE plants! My house is filled with them and I have to say I have a pretty good green thumb. They do stay alive for a really long time. yay!

For instance this peace lily was given to us when my mom past away in August of 2000. Yup going on 18 years now and look at it. It will still bloom gorgeous white lilies from time to time and new leaves are always growing.

Then this orchid I bought about 6 years ago and each spring it starts with new buds. If you look close there are 3 ready to open on this tall stem. It was laying down until it got long enough for me to clip it to that stake. Now to wait for them to bloom.

Orchids are extremely easy plants to care for. Just throw an ice cube in once a week and that is all. They bloom only 1-2 times a year and when they do you just need to clip the stalk to the stake and thats it. After the blooms open they stay alive for a good month and once they die off you just clip that stalk and remove the stake. You will just have the green plant then for the rest of the year until it blooms again.

This time of year you can buy them really cheap at Home Depot. They are all bloomed and gorgeous. So don’t be afraid to buy an orchid because you really cannot kill it.

Here is another plant I have had from little on. It started in a small 4 ” pot and as it kept growing I replanted about 3 times now. I think it is about 12 years old.

A couple years ago I decided to build this ladder for it and wrapped all its leaves around it so it would keep growing up and around the ladder. I use to have it on top of my fire place but last December moved it to the floor over here. This is another no fail plant….so easy to grow and is a pothos plant. I give it a half cup of water every Friday and that seems to do the trick.

Of course I have many plants also in my office where we get the most light each day. But this guy is also about 12 years old and just keeps growing and growing. Again very little water once a week.

I have had the best of luck with plants from Home Depot. That is where most of mine come from. Plus they are so cheap over there. These two also in my office are the easiest ever to grow and I love them!

Easy Hacks with plants!

I also want to share some easy hacks with plants that you want in a decorative container but sometimes the plant is to small and sits to low in the container. This might be obvious to some but I know not everyone knows this so I will share. This container is 14″ tall and the plant in the pot that it came in is only 5″ tall.

I loved this plant but also this container so all I did was stuff the bottom with paper like this and put a plastic container on top of the paper and set the plant in that. So that stuffing of paper raised it high enough to where I wanted it and voila a gorgeous container with a live plant.

Those plastic drip trays are also super cheap at Home Depot or even Steins like around $1 for that size. Smaller ones are under 80 cents and I just bought some 4″ size for 29 cents at Steins so you really cannot go wrong with that price.

Same with this container….I love it but wanted a plant in it and because its metal that really is not sealed I kept the plant in the pot it came in and here I used a small plastic container to just set the pot in so when I water it the container will catch any drops.

Tip, when I water I do take the planter out and run under water then set it back in and that container will catch any drops left in the pot and not get the paper all wet. Bam….another adorable plant in a cute container raised up with just paper.

You can use any kind of paper, newspaper, paper bags, plastic bags, anything you have to just stuff the bottom. Just crumble it up and stuff it in!

Air Plants

Now lets talk about air plants. Those are another SUPER EASY plant to care for and don’t even need dirt! WHAT? yup I got these babies over a year ago and I set them all over to just dress up a small space with greenery. Here are the ones I bought from amazon.

Seriously you set them in a bowl of water about every two weeks like this for about 15 minutes.

Then you take them out and set on a paper towel to dry like this.

That is it and then set around where ever you want. They last forever and can be used in so many other decorating projects that I will share another time but for now they just sit all over my house. Such a cute simple way to add some fresh greenery to any space. They also do super well in the bathroom with the moisture that is in there from the shower. So get some air plants here. They are amazing!

So there you have it my friends. Just a few tips on decorating with plants. I have so many more plants in my home but I did not want to bore you, lol!

The only thing you do need to always check with specific houseplants some are poisonous to pets. So be sure to check them out if you have a pet that likes to eat plants.

Anybody else out there love plants and have a ton like me? Would love to hear from you in the comments.

Enjoy your day my friends…….I have my grandson today and its suppose to be 80 degrees.YIPPY, I am excited and if I am real lucky maybe my granddaughters will stop over and play in the sand box. Oh yes that will be another post someday on the simple DIY sandbox we made for the grand kids and anybody could do!