Monday, May 6, 2013

Succulents and terrariums galore

I love my plants. I always try to bring nature with me and terrariums are great for that. Now that I have a garden, I've been building up a steady collection of succulents. I want to track the collection and growth of the succulents in the pallet so I'll posting up lots of photos here.

I've got 2 pallets but I've only converted one into a planter so far. A layer of weedmat was stapled to the bottom of the pallet and the gaps between the pallet planks were covered with paling fence wood. The whole pallet was filled up with lots of potting soil and I started adding plants. I've got a lot of small cuttings and plantlets all over the pallet but I won't be propping it up vertically until the roots have taken hold and the succulents have grown more compact so the soil doesn't tip out.

Isn't it beautiful! I haven't counted how many different succulents I have in there but there might be more than 15
 
I don't know the names of the succulents but I think these are both sedums

 More sedums! The one of the left looks like a sedum burrito but I don't think it is; I got the one on the right for free from a nursery cause they only have cuttings which have fallen off the parent plant

Some red ones, bought from Springvale

 Sempervium cuttings: (left) divided from a large parent plant my sis got me; (right) my hairdresser gave me lots of different succulents from her garden

 Echeverias

 Got these ones from my hairdresser as well!


 Got these ones from Bunnings a few months ago

More echiverias: The one on the right almost died during the heat wave but I was lucky it survived, it even has babies sprouting from the bottom!


 Beautiful jellybeans from a nearby nursery and bright and easy sedums from Bunnings

I've also planted a few in wooden planters and terracotta pots. Hopefully they'll continue to thrive and fill up the gaps by giving me more babies :D
 A succulent arrangement in a wooden bucket

  
 These guys are very young but I hope they'll fill up the pot soon

Got a pot filled with these succulents from IKEA surprisingly. They didn't look very healthy but I've transplanted them to a bigger pot and they've perked up and grown much bigger

A pot filled with semps from my sis. Thank you! I hope the babies will grow bigger so I can take cuttings and plant them everywhere

I was also lucky enough to come by some luscious mosses when I went hiking which I used in my terrariums. I still have some stored away in airtight bags in the fridge so I can make more terrariums when I get more containers. Here are a few more that I've made.

Tried to do mini lanscaping in there

 How the inside of the terrariums look like

 Close-up view from the outside

 Two other terrariums in jars

I think my moss arrangements are starting to improve but I do think that I may have filled up the containers with too much pebbles, soil, charcoal, etc before adding the plants so they don't have much room to grow up. I'll definitely fix that next time!
 

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

April Sketches

I did a few sketches in San Diego but continued to make a few more even after I got back to uni. It's good to break up the work with a relaxing doodle every once in a while. Some sketches done in SD:


I love the pink/orange flamingos! Would love to draw this on a big scale one day

Visited an art gallery in Balboa park which, of course, prohibited photos, so I drew part of a painting I liked. I think this sketch took me about 20-30 minutes. Drawing chubby baby statues is a first for me! Good practice.
Chubby cherubs

Referenced this parrot from some photos on my camera while waiting at LA airport. This sketch took much longer than the cherubs. I put a lot of effort into the feathers. Sort of incomplete at the moment but haven't been bothered to finish it.



Had a few days off uni during Easter break, YES!! Went to the Grampians for 3 days/ 2 nights to do some of the trails and visit some of the waterfalls and harvest some super pretty moss. Gave ink pens a go with this sketch of the Grand Canyon at the Grampians.

The not-so-famous Grand Canyon...

Been really into Games of Thrones lately. And I know Kit Harington is very VERY popular with all the ladies.
Lost crow :(

Last of the sketches, some WIP - Jellyfishies on a black A3 sketchpad. 3-4 hours taken so far.


Some succulent love! I'm trying to build up a collection of succulents. Lots of echeverias, sedums, and some semperviums. Managed to salvage a few pallets on the side of the road and made one of them into a succulent pallet wall planter. It's been an ongoing project for almost 4 months now. A lot of the succulents died after 2-3 consecutive 42 degree days in Feb =( Been collecting more ever since the weather got better. The pallet is almost full now but it needs a few months sitting flat for the succulent roots to take hold before standing it up. If I ask my neighbour nicely maybe I can buy/get a few cuttings? This neighbour has awesome succulents in her front yard <3 br="">