Indoor Home | Garden Artisans, LLC

Holiday Decor from Foraged Materials

Posted on Dec 01, 2022 | by KK

Holiday decorations don't have to be expensive, or time-consuming to create. Chances are you already have the makings of some naturally beautiful arrangements right outside your door. Conifers such as Leyland cypress, pine, arborvitae and juniper, and broadleaf evergreen holly and nandina are common landscaping plants that work quite well. Accents of berries, pine cones, grass inflorescences and dried flowers can easily be found in the late fall and winter landscape as well. All of these can be used to create a design from scratch, or to elevate plain, less costly wreaths and roping. We've put together some tips for you on creating quick decorations with foraged materials.

Preserving Your Home-Grown Herbs

Posted on Oct 01, 2022 | by KK

Fall brings many changes to the garden. Some are particularly lovely, like the warm glow of the autumn sun highlighting nature’s new palette of ruby, copper and gold. Some are beneficial such as the bit of frost that sweetens persimmons and root crops. Some are just plain annoying—does anyone like raking leaves? Watching all those annual flowers fade away is always sad. We may miss our zinnias, and lament the passing of our petunias, but this gives us a chance to reimagine and reinvent our plantings come spring. Flowers come and flowers go, that’s all in a year’s gardening. But how are we supposed to live without our basil for 6 months? THAT is the worst of fall’s effects—turning a lush, mouth-watering mound of green into a slimy, blackened mass of mush. There’s nothing like fresh herbs to perk up everyday recipes, and nothing like the satisfaction and assurance of growing your own. So take heart--there’s no reason to let all that tasty goodness perish. It’s not difficult to preserve your herbal delights for a winter-long supply of flavor. You might even be able to create some amazing home-made gifts while you’re at it!

Flowering Houseplants: How Long Will They Last?

Posted on Jan 05, 2022 | by KK

Between now and spring, nurseries, garden centers and online plant dealers will attempt to entice you with promises of filling your home with beautiful blooming plants to tide you over until the real gardening season begins. They know we plant junkies and gardening addicts are desperate for a growing fix. As a former garden center plant buyer it was my job to find those beauties you just couldn’t resist and convince you they would flower and flourish inside with you until the weather breaks. Anything that would naturally or could be forced to flower in winter was in play—primroses, daffodils, roses, geraniums, cyclamen, African violets, orchids, begonias, kalanchoe and so many, many more, often dresed in something party pretty--a colorful wrap or adorable novelty pot to make them even more irresistible. So enticing........... but will they actually last? Well, that's open to interpretation. Some of them are certainly fine houseplants that have the capacity to rebloom for you without a lot of extra care. Some of them will bloom for a few weeks and give you the opportunity to summer them on the patio or plant in the garden to enjoy in the future. And sadly, truth be told, some are bound for the compost pile after blooming is finished, unless you have a merciful gardening friend with lots of extra time and space (who will be sensible enough to toss it but not tell you about it).

Houseplant Growing Tips

Posted on Jan 08, 2021 | by KK

Watering: More houseplants die from overwatering than anything else. Most houseplants like to dry out between waterings. Some can dry out a lot (snake plants) some moderately (pothos, philodendron, dracaena canes), and some just a little (peace lily). So how do you know when that is achieved? There are several ways you can gauge this, and it’s best to combine all the methods until you have a good schedule established:

Best Low-Maintenance Houseplants

Posted on Jan 07, 2021 | by KK

Spending a lot of time at home lately? Now that it's winter, are you feeling a bit confined, and finding the air a bit stuffy? Do you need to breathe some life into your workspace, or encourage peace and relaxation in your living area? One of the best ways to tackle those issues is to add some plants to your home. Bringing in a bit of green allows you to connect with nature, relieve stress, boost your mood, and even improve the air you breathe. It doesn't have to be difficult if you make the right choices--instead of a fussy, high-maintenance house guest, you can have a mellow, relatively self-sufficient friend for life. Read on for our suggested list of easy care plants that will make you glad they were invited, and click here for general houseplant growing tips.

The evolution of the Christmas Tree

Posted on Dec 01, 2019 | by Kerry Kelley

The Christmas Tree, a centuries old holiday tradition, has certainly seen some changes in modern times. From Germany in the 1500s, the evergreen hung with ornaments of fruits, nuts, and sweets remained virtually unchanged through the early 20th century. The 1930s saw the first boom in artificial trees, but post WWII the materials and styles expanded. Today, we can choose from life-like artificial trees, or fanciful trees in every color of the rainbow—with fake snow, and/or prelit, if you desire. Meanwhile, the good old evergreen Christmas Tree is perhaps facing a crisis as its producers are growing older and retiring, without sufficient interest from younger generations in continuing the tradition.

How to Choose, Maintain, and Dispose of your Real Christmas Tree

Posted on Nov 22, 2019 | by Kerry Kelley

Having worked in a retail nursery’s tree lot for several years, I learned a few things about cut Christmas trees that might help you out:

The History of Glass Christmas Ornaments

Posted on Nov 02, 2015 | by S Mason

Hand blown glass Christmas ornaments come in all shapes and sizes, but have you ever wondered where the tradition came from? Glass blowing as an art has been around since 1500 BC. Excavations show that the Egyptians made use of glass, though it was not till much later that glass became a huge trade commodity.

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Holiday Decor from Foraged Materials

Preserving Your Home-Grown Herbs

Flowering Houseplants: How Long Will They Last?

Houseplant Growing Tips

Best Low-Maintenance Houseplants

The evolution of the Christmas Tree

How to Choose, Maintain, and Dispose of your Real Christmas Tree

The History of Glass Christmas Ornaments

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