Category Archives: Crafty

For the record, I had something totally different planned for the pinterest challenge. Originally I was going to forge ahead with the Pallet Shelving pin, but after surveying the pallet I have had living outside for the last 12 months I noticed that the side I love the most (all grey and weathered) was the side that would be against the wall. So that pin is shelved for another weekend when Lady Sandy is not headed our way and I can spend some time outdoors sanding and staining.

Instead I decided to have a go at making my own version of a hanging kokedama garden. I mean seriously…how could you not?

First stop – the big Orange for some indoor shade loving plants. This is necessary due to the outer layer of the Kokedama balls being moss. Moss does not do well in bright light…so be kind and go slim (shady). I managed to grab a little fern, as well as another greenish whitish yellowey leafy (that’s a technical plant term) one.

As I’m sure you can guess, I didn’t buy them this way. When I got them home I took them to the backyard and very sternly smacked each of them and told them how disappointed I was. This was the end result. They were suitable shamed and naked. Perfect.

This is the Sphagnum moss i bought. The biggest smallest bag they had, but I’m sure this will now be passed down many generations in my family. I grabbed out a small amount and popped it in a bowl of water. You can also just use a mist spray, but get it a little wet as it is much easier to work with.

Here we are, all 50 shades of moss up in here. Bondage is our specialty. What what!

So the next part is the fun, messy part. Try to channel your inner three year old for this. Truth be told, i didn’t have to try very hard…but at least this time I managed to put the glue out of reach before she came out to play.

The reason there are no in between photos, is that it’s hard to take shots while you are doing this (there are plenty of detailed images at the original source though!). It’s messy, fiddly and a little too much fun. Also, the soil mixture I had was not quite clayey (another technical term) enough, so instead of forming a ball first, I found it worked better if I just formed a ball around the root system I had so cleverly wrapped up.

I had some moss left over from my terrarium project which I soaked in a little water for a while to make it a little more pliable. Just shove that stuff all over and push it into place. Here is where I used some deeply ingrained macrame skills to make a little net for my new balls (heh, balls). I actually ended up using a big fat needle threaded with jute twine to wrap the kokedama around the middle as well – just to give them a little more support. Also, to try and stave off the idea in my brain that involved me coming home from work to find a puddle of soil under the spot the kokedama used to hang

And the end result? Happy at home with Dawn and Rufus in our mini dining room.

All told it probably took about an hour and a half to make these bad boys. But most of that was figuring out how to create the first one. The second was much speedier. Unfortunately, I have now located several other areas of our house that need hanging kokedama gardens.