Creating A House Plant Jungle On My Screened Porch
More plants? Yes, I need more plants to bring into my new screened porch area where I am hoping to create my House Plant Jungle! Seriously this is becoming an addiction. I want more and more plants and I am struggling to take care of the ones I have already. But it’s just like with the hypertufa. Make one and you want to make more. I have so many I don’t know where or what I am going to do with them, but I always want to try another one. Oh well, there could be worse habits, right?
My Elephant Ears (Alocasia) have been planted and I am anxiously awaiting for some sprouts to show. It is supposed to take about three weeks but it seems that they didn’t let me know that these would be such LONG three weeks. I have already added some cuttings of Swedish Ivy in the tops of these huge planters, and some regular English ivy too. I want some cascading understory plantings for the large stalks of the Alocasia. Hopefully these will look nice together.
I have been exploring the local stores and online sites looking for shelving or tables for my displays of plants, but haven’t found anything I like yet. It seems that if I like it, it is not for outdoor use. And if it is an outdoor type, it just doesn’t appeal to me. Currently I am using some plant stands that I had used on the deck and some that were just stored waiting for some inspiration to come to me. These will have to do for now.
Hanging Hooks in my House Plant Jungle
I have some hooks to put in the ceiling of the screened porch. It seems to me that I will have to have some hanging plants since I will run out of room placing them on tables etc. When all this has to be taken inside for the winter, I may run into trouble. But I will worry about that when September rolls around. Some can be taken back downstairs to the basement garden shop under lights. But others may need to hang or sit upstairs. But that means more videos and I love showing the plants and how pretty they look. I hope you do too!
For extra heavy pots or just to feel secure about overhead pots, I use this type of [easyazon_link identifier=”B005KMD42O” locale=”US” tag=”thehypegard0d-20″] hanging hooks [/easyazon_link] (#affiliate link) on the ceiling of my House Plant Jungle. Those “wings” fold out and hold securely if you are drilling into drywall. The other inner stem can just be screwed alone into thick wood like we have and the plant hangs that way. Don’t need a pot falling down!
Watering in the Jungle
Most of my plants have drainage holes and I am trying to keep them in saucers so that I won’t do any damage to the wood flooring outside. Even though it is exposed to the outside and gets rained on sometimes (mostly with wind-driven rain), I really don’t want puddles of water staining the floors and railings. Hopefully there won’t be too much spillage, but I will have hanging pots and that means drips. There is just no getting around that. And since it is screened, dust blows in through the screens so I will have to keep the plants “dusted.” Not to mention, this porch needs mopping every so often.
I will have large watering pitchers to water the plants and probably misters since I plan on using some ferns and other humidity-loving plants. Will fungus gnats be a problem? Will they come in through the screens? This summer will be my testing period.
( See that the gnats have arrived!)
I will take all my safeguards in use and put them outside in the screened porch too. Sticky traps, hydrogen peroxide. And also some [easyazon_link identifier=”B0001AUF8G” locale=”US” tag=”thehypegard0d-20″]Mosquito Bits [/easyazon_link] (#affiliate link) which I understand will help a lot. These are what I will use and I can give you a report later on to let you know how that worked. I heard about this on many blogs and videos. So I will test it out.
Using the Mosquito Bits sounds logical. You measure an amount of the Bits based on how much water you will use and those Bits mix into the watering container you use for your plants. Voila! This water becomes what will kill the larvae in the soil. Just repeat at next watering until no more problem. Meanwhile catch the adults on a sticky trap. Larvae dead, no hatching gnats. Adults dead, no more larvae. Problem solved.
These Bits contain Bti ( short for Bacillus thuringiensis ) which are spores that contain a toxin that specifically targets larvae of mosquitos, blackfly and Fungus Gnats! Yeah Baby! It is organic and does not pose a risk for humans.
Catch the video to see all that I have done so far. I am bringing more and more into the screened porch. Most of them are coming from the basement garden. I must admit I am buying more plants when I see something I cannot resist. My husband doesn’t know one plant from the other so he can’t tell that I am buying more. They all are just green things that he sees as my addiction. And I guess he is right! It can happen.
Him being right, I mean. LOL!