dig in the dirt!

Today I spent some time taking care of my houseplants and noticed a few were out of control, so here is a little tutorial about taking care of that:

Indoor Gardening: Regulation and Propagation 

This is what we call the "Gramma Plant." My Grandma gave it to me a few years ago for my birthday. It's one of my favorites. It's very vigorous and easy to grow. It's also easy to propagate.When it gets out of control (as it clearly is in the picture), you just snip the long parts off and you can put them in water like the picture below. The ends of the stems grow roots and then you just stick them into dirt to start a brand new plant. 

See? Just keep it on the window sill like this for a week or so and you'll start to see roots. 

Note: Sometimes this plant just gets soggy in water, you have to watch it. If this happens, you can skip the vase part and stick them straight into the dirt, as long as you keep it moist to promote root growth.

 The leaves on this succulent fall off very easily and I always make sure to collect them to start new plants with. All you have to do with these is stick them into slightly moist dirt and give them lots of sunlight.

The ones with dirt were already tossed into a pot and started growing roots. I just took them out gently and kept the attached dirt to protect the root hairs.

This pot has a broken hinge and was tossed into the trash bin at Salvation Army when I was working there. My eyes got big and I defended it and my boss promptly told me if I wanted it, it was $1.99. Still worth it.

These terra cotta balls were given to me by a friend. I think she got them from a hydroponics store in Minneapolis. We use them instead of terra cotta shards in the bottom of our pots to absorb and retain moisture. This is important when there isn't a drainage hole in the bottom of the pot to regulate moisture levels.

So just dump the balls in first, add the dirt, and then put the leaves or stems in. It'll take awhile before these are big beautiful plants, but it'll be worth it.

This already looks good to me, but I can't wait for it to get crazy.

Indoor gardening is a major hobby of mine, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask, and I might be able to help!

xx, nicole