Hi gardeners, hope your garden grows well. Mine is doing okay, however, this month I will not be talking about how my plants grow, I will focus on some stuff I have been doing around my hanging garden.
I am not sure if anyone remembers that after my angioplasty I suffered disc prolapse which brought my gardening efforts to a halt, it was then that I came up with the idea of a hanging garden. Here everything is suspended from the ceiling and is not a strain on my back. It's been two years now and my hanging garden has grown by leaps and bounds. Actually this part of my home has become a forest of sorts.
I added and kept on adding more hooks and plants that now there is no space to move around my balcony. This being a small balcony extending into a small pergola space is rather limited. This was the time I learned to use a lot of tools from my husbands tool box. I played around with wires learning to make hooks and frames for my plants. However, now I went one step further and decided that I need to decorate my hanging garden with tinsels.
My philosophy when it comes to gardening is to reuse/ recycle and spend as little money as possible on the garden per say. This means I grow almost all my plants from seeds or cuttings. The hanging pots and the contraptions to hang them were all made by me. However, some of my craft material which have been lying waste and occupying space needed to be used. I decided to use them to craft trinkets for my garden.
Old unused earrings, fake pearls and stuff have come in handy when I made these trinkets. I basically played around with wires and beads to make most of these trinkets. However, there were a whole bunch of aluminum foil containers which were lying around gathering dust. I used some of them for metal embossing crafts and the wasted bits were used to as tinsels. Why waste anything when the landfills in my city are overflowing? Why add to the burden?
Most of the trinkets were made using wires, beads and aluminum foil. Since the hanging garden is on the first floor balcony, these trinkets dance in the wind and look pretty.
I had some broken PVC pipes lying around I decorated them and made them into planters for my garden. Shampoo containers, cleaning material containers have all become planters big and small. It is better to use these than buying hordes of plastic planters.
My friends ask me why I waste so much time making these things, my answer to them is I don't waste time, I listen to audio books or podcasts when I make these. My creativity, crafting skills and happiness are all growing as I spend time doing two things at once.
Why do I need to decorate my garden when my garden is supposed to decorate my home? My garden is my passion and my plants have become my children. I partake in their joys and sorrows. I fight battles alongside them. So why not make them more special by adorning them and showing them my love. We decorate our homes for Christmas, but my plants are decorated all through the year.😀
Talk about showing love to plants - I used to over feed and over water my plants and kill them with love when I was younger. Now, I don't overfeed or over water, I just let them grow at their own pace in their own special place.
My garden is my special place, and I am happy to see it decorated. This is where I spend most of my waking time so I like to see some sparkle here. I enjoy the glitz and the glam as long as it is not on my person. This also gives me an opportunity to talk to people about recycling waste, about planting trees or plants in their terraces or garden spaces.
Have I converted people? I think so, I see a number of people now growing plants in their balconies on my street. Sometimes they come to me for advise. I see my friends reducing, reusing and recycling waste. I may not change the world but I can change one person at a time. I may not be big time influencer but I do influence people to do somethings right. At least I try.
My garden is not the best, it is not arranged beautifully because I can't lift pots and make those changes. Nonetheless I love my garden and try to do the best I can there to make me happy.
Don't let anyone take away your happiness. Happy gardening!