To skip the story part of the post and check out the instructions for the homemade plant pot, this instruction guide I put together might be helpful for you. But if you got your own ideas from this post, then why not try it out?
It all started with a birthday. And with birthdays, of course comes the gifts. If you’re lucky enough that is. Although I’m starting to believe life is a gift itself because I’ve realized that I have a choice in my own life, we all do. So I made it count, especially this time. Anyways…
I would say I’m not the best at remembering things, although I used to be. I like to call it ‘selective memory’ meaning I only remember the things I want to, or see as more important for whatever reasons. It’s a gift and a curse. Just like being a plant parent is. When my partner and I kept stocking up on all these plants during the summer, we started to realize we had no plant pots left for transplanting and needed to get more. But it’s hard to find good looking pots for a reasonable price – with a drain hole too!
With most the tools already at home, my partner told me he wanted a planter for the kitchen window for all his herbs. He also wanted a piece of art from me for his birthday so we combined our ideas into one. The bonus is we didn’t need to spend too much money, also, handmade gifts seem to have more thought and love within them. We didn’t want to wait in case they closed so we could find the wood we wanted. Heading out to the nearby Home Depot to pick up some pine boards 1/4” thick and cut to our desired length and width to fit our kitchen window.
To be honest, my skilled partner did the majority of the construction of the plant pot. I assisted and painted the boards as well as the design for the planter.
I admit, it was a fun to do something like this during the pandemic. Everything had been shutting down as we did this. We were just lucky enough to get into home depot to find the wood we needed before they went curbside. You can tweak this if you want to, create your own unique planter or pot. Bring some plant life to your life.
To support this creative, hands-on plant idea, there has been numerous studies that show plants can improve our mood and our quality of life. Just by having a houseplant in your bedroom can help you breathe better and think better. Check out the attached links to see the studies published by the Journal of Physiological Anthropology and Washington University: Department of Biology, Arts & Sciences Article Citation: Schaal B. Plants and people: Our shared history and future. Plants, People, Planet, 2019;1:14– 19. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.12
3 Plant Tips
- treat them like your pets or children
- educate yourself on the plant you want or have, research because most place that sell plants that aren’t ‘designed’ to have the wrong plant name tags. Meaning, your typical ‘aloe’ might be some different kind of aloe than the next one. This one I think is crucial and I have messed this up before and the result was dead plants because they were not the plant I thought it was.
- light is more important than water, especially for succulents.