Kokedama part two

Again, not a tutorial, but this is how I made my first hanging kokedama. 

Experiments in kokedama

This is Pinterest meets crafty chick meets gardener meets too many house plants, when the only way to go is up... Or down, in this case. As in attach the plants to the ceiling in my obsession of the week: kokedama, specifically hanging kokedama. 

This is not a tutorial, but a document of my own experiments in the style. If you want to know how to make kokedama a quick whip around a few Google results will give you ample information. However, for the purposes of information, I'm using sphagnum moss, orchid mix potting media, jute twine, one of my clearance orchids, and air-dry clay. No, I'm not mixing the clay through the potting mix as I've read in tutorials (probably not suitable)  but I'm making a sphere of it for the centre to give the kokedama a shape to work to, and to act as a bit of a weight.

So, here goes nothing! 

Santa Rosa and friends

Eating Santa Rosa plums (have loads)

And the Moorpark apricots (not many this year)

Here are the lotus seedlings with their 'coin leaves' in their temporary growing-on home

Small boy in a big garden  

Yellow cherry tomatoes best for throwing, apparently (variety label lost)

Three x new-ish chicken bottoms (actually four, one not in shot)

New pond from the old bath. Sorry about the green, wrong setting on the phone! 

Whoops

Watering and fertilising my orchids and and managed to snap off a section of the biggest, oldest, original, and only full price one. She's a yellow Oncidium orchid, 'Dancing Ladies,' and bought a few years ago to celebrate moving back into our little house after our renovation was nearly completed. 

Plenty of roots intact there, so nothing for it but to pot it up and voila, a new plant (or two, maybe!)

I note also that those wrinkled pseudo-bulbs show I let it dry out a bit too much, too often. 

Boo

Big winds; Myoporum batae down :(

Squashed the chicken fence, blocked off the compost bin as well, had to take it apart with secateurs branch by branch to get it out. 

Still, silver linings: a tripod-trellis for the piller rose out the front from the branches? And lots more light and space for the chickens now. 

Growing lotus from seed.

Some time back I bought four lotus seeds from EBay with the intention of growing them into plants (or trying to, anyway). I finally got around to trying this out about a week ago. Following some online instructions, I filed a hole through the seed coat of each seed with sandpaper: these buggers are really hard! Then they were popped into a yogurt container with lukewarm water (filtered water, for what it's worth) and left them on a sunny windowsill, changing the water each day. Overnight the seeds swell up from sultana-sized, to grape sized. About three days later I was very excited to see the first green shoots peeking out. One seed, however, has not sprouted yet, and may not at all. 

I was astounded to see the shoots had grown a full inch taller by the end of the day! 

A day after this the shoots were poking out of the water, and it's time to repot them into fertilised soil and put them into the pond. It's pretty hot outside now, so the plants should love it.