Bringing the Ferns Inside

 I have a lot of ferns and they have gotten big over the last few years. Really big.

I have had some pretty good success wintering them over and the result is that they have gotten larger each year. This is exciting and concerning. It gets harder and harder to find the perfect winter home for each one.

(Ferns hanging out with an elephant in the Family Room) 

When I decided to change things up and redo the room below I wanted it to have a bit of a sunroom feel. It doesn't have but 2 windows but they do get great winter light. It's the closest thing I'm going to have to a true sunroom so I wanted to include room for some of my plants to overwinter. It is the Living Room in our traditional plan but it's never served that purpose and I think this particular transformation is going to be the most beneficial for how we live.

These 3 ferns are so large they are monopolizing the "plant area" in this room right now. 

I'm lucky in that I also have a great little "greenhouse/cold frame" situation in my backyard that has helped me successfully winter over a lot of plants in one space. 

We purchased this frame and cover at Tractor Supply for a little over $100.00 a year ago. 

I would love a charming, English Conservatory looking greenhouse but this utilitarian, less charming set up served its purpose. I filled it up, put a small heater in there last Winter and crossed my fingers!

Almost everything made it through the Winter and some things blossomed and thrived!

I did learn a lot about regulating the temperature and about the amount of watering required - more than I expected!

It did not cost much to use the heater to keep the plants from freezing and the savings from not buying new ferns each Spring was significant. And a bonus is that the ferns not only survived they grew and have long, lush fronds. 

I'm hoping that I will be able to rotate my ferns between the house (where they dry out more and drop leaves) with ones from the greenhouse (where there is more humidity and they happily grew and stayed very green last Winter.)

This system worked well last Winter, my ferns grew crazily this Summer on the screened porch so I'm feeling confident that we can repeat our success this Winter BUT I'm always open to any good plant tips!! Please share if you have a any plant "survival" tips!!

Here's one of my best tips:

It's how I get rid of possible  pests before I bring my plants inside!

I use Dr. Bronner's Castile Soaps for everything!! They are clean and safe for our use and the environment. I dilute 1 tablespoon of Dr. Bronner's unscented soap in a spray bottle and generously spray my ferns especially. I turn them every direction and spray underneath. Then I spray with a bottle of clear water. The ferns love all of this moisture! I also dilute a tablespoon or two of the same Dr. Bronner's in a gallon of water and pour through the soil followed by a watering of clear water. Then I wipe the post clean and let the plant rest a bit before bringing it inside. 

It seems to make the ferns happy and I rarely find any pests inside!

Looking Forward...

Fall is flying by.

 I started a post last week (which I never found a moment to even get back to) about Fall things and the beginning of November and here we are in the 2nd week of the month. It's hard to keep up - for me anyway!

I love fall flowers and plants plus the gourds and pumpkins were so interesting this year. I just stuffed all my fall favorites in a galvanized tub and it looks great. 

I'm still using my little marbleized pumpkins and my real ones too - right up until Thanksgiving. Then we will pull out the stops and go crazy decorating for Christmas.

I have a couple of spray paint marbleizing projects I want to try for the holidays but we can't buy spray paint anywhere in our area!! This supply chain crisis has resulted in the most random shortages. 
I'm hoping I'll be able to share my ideas soon - I check the spray paint aisle for the right colors every time I'm out. 

So do you still have fall decorations around or have you moved on to Christmas?

To be honest, I'm not ready to put up MY holiday decorations quite yet but I like to look at everyone else's and think about my soon-to-come Christmas decor. We keep some things the same and switch other things up. What about you? 

Whether you are still enjoying pumpkins or happily decking the halls, hang on to your hats because November is flying by!!

Progress Is All About Perspective.

 Progress is all about perspective. In so many things. Not just decorating!!

The room below has been a slooowww work in progress. I began in May thinking I would complete the bulk of it that month. It's October and I'm still slogging away. 

(One day I will steam the wrinkles from the daybed cover. Promise)

It is better, in my opinion, to take time and find the right things. That wasn't necessarily the hold up here but between interruptions and the amount of work involved in some of the steps I am still pulling it together. 

The gold mirror is a bit smaller than I want but for $1.99 at Goodwill it was an excellent "filler" for the time being!

I posted a sneak peak of a small nearly finished area on my IG recently declaring myself the Queen of Slow Decorating. 

Shortly after that I saw an IG story from Rachel at Serene and Co. about comparison on social media when it comes to big, spendy, sponsored accounts and the rest (and probably majority) of us who have to plan, save, thrift, etc. to create homes that serve and comfort our families. 

I love the inspiration on Instagram. I started on IG in the very early days because it was visual and inspiring and a lot less "opinion" oriented than other social media outlets. It has changed a lot in the years I've been here but I remind myself that I actually control what I see and if an account is just about selling product or has unrealistic projects and materials that don't really relate I can unfollow (and I do that sometimes.)

 I like to look at high end, good design because it is beautiful and can be educational. We, as IG consumers, have to control our responses to it or limit exposure. It's really that simple. 

I want what I share to be realistic and attainable. My house is probably 90% thrifted, slow decorated and well used. We live hard in our house and nothing is precious - dogs on the furniture, white slipcovers can be bleached after spills, we eat in front of the TV if we want to and we put our feet up on the coffee table. That doesn't mean we don't care for our things, we just really use them to suit how we live. Our screened porch always gets a big response on IG and it is truly one big thrift find!! Even some of the wood used to build it. You can read about it here. 

(A quick screenshot from the other day. It doesn't have to be instant or expensive!)

And if I save for something special I still don't want the price or the wait to cause me to be less comfortable about how we use it in our daily lives. 

I think my definition of a really beautiful home on IG would be that it has spaces that serve its family well. What about you?