Processing a stock plant

Adam's Art and Bonsai Blog

I got this tree from Rob Addonizio. I’m sure he grew it from a cutting.
I’ve had it for awhile now so I figured it was time to process it and start it on its way towards being a bonsai.

here’s the trunk. It’s busting out of the pot.

another view. It’s in a ten inch wide container.

Real healthy growth. What I do to this today will not kill the tree, promise.
If I wanted to spend a lot of time I probably could rake this out. But I don’t. Plus, there is an opportunity here to share a secret with you.

saw saw saw

There we go
The sawn off bottom I will save and
put here.

From those cut root ends a forest of shoots will grow. And that is the first secret I will share. This will grow into a small clump; all the best salicaria…

View original post 409 more words

Important Bonsai Masterpiece

Tyler Sherrod Bonsai

***UPDATE***I’m happy to say that all of the trees we had submitted for the Kichou Bonsai judging were accepted!

About this time every year a judging takes place in Tokyo for the newest entries of bonsai into a select group know as Kichou Bonsai, or Important Bonsai Masterpiece.  These bonsai are ones that are recognized as being some of the finest quality trees, ones that have been improved upon year after year to the point where they stand out above most other bonsai. I am told that this judging has taken place over the last 35 years or so and although some of these trees have died over the years for one reason or another, there have been about 750 trees awarded with this honor. A handful of professionals from around Japan make up the group of judges and are typically the same group that has just judged the past Kokufu trees. After a…

View original post 633 more words

Josh’s Bonsai Garden

Bonsai Eejit

Had a little trip over to Josh’s garden during the week to see his trees. Robert, Phil and Stephen and I made an evening of it. Bonsai and Fly Fishing dominated the discussion 🙂

Here’s a little video clip put together showing the photos from the evening and a few video clips threw in for good measure.

 

View original post

Garage Get Together

Bonsai Eejit

Friday night was one of my gather up’s of friends to play with trees. We had six on the night, a few no shows due to the sunny day it turned out to be. Who could blame them. The rest of us got on with it.

Stepehn brought this Jasmine. Still pretty much raw material that had struggled last year after a repot. This year was he first it had flowered after collection from a garden.

You can notice in the photo of it’s trunk below that there was some white fungus starting on the bark. This was a dead patch which was removed to create a shari. More on this in a later post, or maybe even on Stephen’s own blog, but I doubt it 😉

Stephen caught in one of those curious moments lol

Brian, new to bonsai, came along. He had a bad experience with a Chinese Elm and I…

View original post 69 more words

Plants are a gals best friend…

just té

In my renewed enthusiasm and commitment to rid my home of chemicals I came across this wonderful post on Homesteading and Survivalism’s facebook page, showing us six of the best house plant to purify the air in our homes.

From carbon monoxide to formaldehyde and mould spores, plants are essential in the quest for a balanced healthy life!  So along with vinegar and lemons I’m adding a whole bunch of these plants to my shopping list!

Take a look at their post and see if you’re tempted too…

View original post

Nerdy Block Planter

Out Of Line Design

So my husband and I were trying to find ways to cover the ugly air conditioning unit in our tiny backyard.  I was this cute idea on Apartment Therapy (I think), using cinder blocks as a planter. Brilliant!  It created the wall needed to cover the unit and a cute way to add color.  However, I always have to do my own spin off of every thing I do because I like creating my own ideas plus, I don’t want to feel like a copy cat.  Here is my take on the cinder block planters with a twist of Super Mario.  If your not getting it by now…let me help you…the yellow blocks with the question marks are the things Mario would hit in games to get coins.
It was pretty easy to put together, with the help of my husband. Bought the cinder blocks from Lows,  used window screen…

View original post 17 more words

How To Make Your Own Book Planters

Wearable Planter

june

We came across these cute little  planters by Wearable Planters on Etsy and thought that we must share it. It’s such a simple & clever idea- you can wear it as a necklase, decorate your bike or hand bag or use it as a brooch!

View original post

Open top terrarium

Crafting and Cooking

I’ve been dying to create a terrarium since a friend of mine created a really pretty one and posted a photo on Facebook. It’s taken me awhile to actually get down to making one though. Why? It took me four different trips to garden centers to find succulents that I really liked. I wanted a particular shape.

It figures, though, the one I really wanted, is really delicate and a bunch of the leaves fell off as I put it in the glass container. Sigh.

Supplies: Large glass container, plants, stones, sand, activated charcoal and soil.

I wanted an open terrarium, but you could do one with a lid. The charcoal is so the water gets filtered and doesn’t smell. The lady at the garden center pointed me directly to the soil that is for cacti and succulents. I got the stones at the dollar store. Win.

Start layering. I…

View original post 206 more words

Container Gardening

M. Sullivan Photography

I’m trying my hand at container gardening this year.  I won the bid on a container gardening kit last fall at a silent auction for Chester Bowl.  It came with 15 containers, stakes, instructions and seeds that were mailed to me in the spring.  I also bought two tomato plants and a pepper plant to add to the container garden.  It was a bit of a rough start with all the rain that we had at the end of May and early June.  None of the basil from the first planting came up.  I think it all got washed away when we had several downpours with many, many inches of rain.  Luckily, I had extra seeds and replanted.  Unfortunately, cutworms and slugs thrived during the wet weather and ate the leaves off the spinach and also tried their hand at the peas, beans and pepper plant.  I’m not sure if the dry weather at the end of June and…

View original post 208 more words