Apartment Garden Blues (Blog): Grow a Privacy Screen

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Published on Sunday, July 27 2014 07:28

Written by Alexandra Martin

When I moved in to my previous apartment complex, I was told we couldn’t put up screens (like bamboo screens) for privacy from the neighbors. So the whole time I lived here, I felt like I was gardening out in the open. And every time I went outside, it seemed like my next-door neighbor also wanted to be on his balcony. So I was out there gardening, and about 10 feet away there was another person there smoking, clipping his toenails and watching what I was doing. Awkward! (and gross!)

I didn't think of it at the time, but a privacy screen would have been very easy to grow on that balcony. That side of the balcony didn’t have many plants (just a fern) because it didn’t get much light. Since light didn’t come from that direction, I could have grown a low-light container plant there that blocked the view of my neighbor (and his view of me), and it wouldn’t have affected the level of light my other plants received.

If I could go back in time, I would have propagated my indoor English ivy plant that I had and grown it in two different plant pots on that side of the balcony. Inside those two plant pots, I would've added a tall stick (a bamboo pole or whatever I could find), and then string some wire from one stick to the other. The ivy could have quickly grown up the poles and along the wire to form a privacy screen that would have been completely ok with apartment management. It would have been a living privacy screen so my neighbors wouldn’t have stared while I was gardening. And maybe the English ivy could have filtered out some of that cigarette smoke, too!

How do you deal with apartment garden privacy? Do you just deal with nosy neighbors watching you in the garden?

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Alexandra is a professional writer from Southern California who grows vegetables, herbs, lots of aloe vera and one giant Boston fern in her balcony garden. She also grows dracaena, pothos and English ivy indoors. She loves traveling and birdwatching in addition to gardening.

Apartment Garden Blues (Blog): Displaying Leaves Indoors

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Published on Sunday, July 13 2014 07:12

Written by Alexandra Martin

A lot of us live in apartments I like to call “caves.” There is just zero light inside, and you just can’t grow plants without grow lights. Grow lights can get in the way or take up too much space, so we cave-dwellers just do without plants inside. But you can bring some of the outdoors inside for very little work and money.

You could buy or pick flowers to display in a vase and replace them every few days, but an easier and cheaper solution is to collect a leaf or two while you’re talking a walk outside. Find a tree with large, thick leaves, and pick one off. Rubber plants and magnolia trees have perfect leaves for this. Sometimes they’re hard to get off, and they can have a sticky milky substance in the leaf stem, so be careful to not make a mess. Other plants and trees may have really pretty leaves you'll want to display, but they may be thin and delicate and won't last long. Just remember that the thicker the leaf is, the longer it will last.

If you can't find any good leaves on your walk, harvest a few leaves from your own garden. Pothos plant leaves are great. The same rule applies – the thicker the leaf, the longer it will last.

Place the leaf or leaves in a tiny vase filled with water, and you can keep a piece of the colorful outdoors in your dark home for six to eight weeks! No light or care required!

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Alexandra is a professional writer from Southern California who grows vegetables, herbs, lots of aloe vera and one giant Boston fern in her balcony garden. She also grows dracaena, pothos and English ivy indoors. She loves traveling and birdwatching in addition to gardening.

Apartment Garden Blues (Blog): Orchids at the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate

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Published on Sunday, June 29 2014 07:05

Written by Alexandra Martin

I took a quick weekend trip up to Santa Barbara, Calif., recently, and when looking for things to do before I left, I found a place on Tripadvisor called the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate. It's not a garden - it's a store. But with a 4.5 rating on both Tripadvisor and Yelp, I decided to check it out. How could I resist? Reviews said things like the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate "will blow your mind" and "I have never ever seen so many orchids in one place in my life!"

Because I've been to many an orchid and garden show, I figured that this store couldn't top these past events. Boy, was I wrong! It was the most amazing collections of orchids I've ever seen, and I also had never seen so many orchids in one place in my life!

Established in 1957, the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate is on 5 acres of coastal Santa Barbara landscape. When driving there, you pass a horse ranch, several commercial farmers and residential houses. We took a left onto Orchid Drive and went up a dirt driveway toward a greenhouse. But there wasn't just the one greenhouse! There were several connected greenhouses, in addition to outdoor growing areas. After chatting for a few minutes with a friendly employee, we began navigating the labyrinth of orchid plants. We went in the early morning, so the warm, humid air was comfortable, but I suspect the heat isn't so appealing later in the day. The orchids in bloom let off sweet smells even though it was early, and I had to stop by each flower and breathe it all in!

Here are some of the sighs from my visit to the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate:

Every year Santa Barbara is home to the huge Santa Barbara International Orchid Show (the oldest and one of the largest shows in the United States), and this central Californian city is one of the country's top orchid producers. If you're in town in mid-March next year, stop by for the 70th annual Santa Barbara International Orchid Show at the Earl Warren Showgrounds and make sure to visit the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate!

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Alexandra is a professional writer from Southern California who grows vegetables, herbs, lots of aloe vera and one giant Boston fern in her balcony garden. She also grows dracaena, pothos and English ivy indoors. She loves traveling and birdwatching in addition to gardening.