Spring Greening: The Easiest Way To Create An Apartment Garden
Get that Green Thumb Going
Once you are home with all your supplies, you can start planting. Take one of your planters and layer a half an inch of charcoal at the bottom. Then, add an inch of the rocks and finally cover with soil. As you plant your succulents, try to think of the way they visually complement each other. “When you plant it, make sure your succulent looks safe, but not too comfortable and coddled,” says Waterhouse. “The soil should be fairly loose, to allow for adequate drainage, but not so loose that the plant will fall over if someone touches it.”
Next Level
If all of this seems far too basic for your expert DIY hands, then you can take it to the next level by creating your own planters from recycled wine bottles. Head to Eagle Rock’s Stained Glass Supplies and pick up an Ephrem's Bottle Cutter, and ask a few friends to hold on to bottles from their dinner parties. "Line up the bottle and rotate it evenly scoring (that means scratching the glass with your cutter) the outside of the bottle,” instructs Waterhouse.
Then, burn a candle, and let the flame slide along the score until you have fully rotated the bottle about three times. Once you are done, coddle a piece of ice with a towel, and run a ice cube along the hot glass four, or five times. Then, return it to the flame, then back to the ice, and then repeat the process a third time.
Be patient, and the glass will break on its own. "If you force the glass, there is a potential danger of being cut. Once it breaks, you have a structure that is a little sharp and possibly jagged on the lip. You can now take a piece of heavy sand paper and sand down the lip of the glass until it is smooth," says Waterhouse. And like that, your leftover bottle has become a rustic, minimalist planter!
Photo: Via Etsy
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