Today I’d like to share with you a really great idea for decorating windowsills that seem bland or need an extra touch of greenery without investing a lot of money or maintenance.

Remember my previous post about Making Self-Watering Herb Jars From Cuttings? I decided to use some of the leftover plastic planting baskets I bought from AliExpress to try and cultivate sweet potatoes, after reading online that they grow well in water and develop beautiful green edible leaves.

I took the same glass container and plastic planting baskets from the previous post, filled the water to the top of the jar and inserted a brown and purple sweet potato at the top. You could probably do the same without a planting basket using toothpicks to steady the potatoes, with about 1/3 of the potato submerged in water. 

Within a couple of days, the potatoes start developing white roots, and within a couple of weeks lovely green leaves appear on the top. I let one of the potatoes grow wild around our windows and it looks lovely! If you’d like, you can try cutting one the vines and letting it grow on its own in water, thus eliminating the need to keep an entire potato on the windowsill.

Apparently if you take the sprouts and plant them, you can grow new potatoes with 14 weeks. Unfortunately, we don’t have the space on our balcony but it definitely sound exciting. I also read that the leaves are edible- haven’t tried eating them yet so I’ll keep you posted.

Have you tried growing your own? How about other veggies? Let me know how it went.

The post Growing Sweet Potatoes in Water appeared first on Zaga Diy.

You will need:

1. Clear plastic planting basket. I bought mine on AliExpress.
2. A pretty glass jar. You need your jar’s opening to fit the plastic basket (make sure you measure the diameter). I bought mine at the local dollar store.
3. A herb cutting- in this tutorial I used a basil plant. The idea is to cut a 4 inch (=10 cm) long cutting of basil from your plant, right below a leaf node (the little bumps where the leaves grow from). Ideally the cutting has at least 2 or 3 leaf nodes above the point you cut it from the mother plant. Then remove most of the leaves from the cutting, leaving only the leaves growing on top.
4. Hydrotone, or clay pebbles. I bought mine at the local hydroponic store. You can also find them on amazon.
5. A piece of cotton rope. I used a 4mm cotton rope from a previous macrame project (:

First, measure the distance from the opening of the jar to its base. Cut your cotton cord at this length. Place the cotton cord in the plastic planting basket, then add the basil cutting and clay pebbles to hold it in place.

After about 5-6 weeks, this is what the basil jar looks like:

Pretty cool right? the cotton rope help keep the plant hydrated, even when the water level starts dropping! It’s also a great way to keep your herbs alive while traveling. At this point you either leave the basil to continue growing hydroponically, or plant it in soil.

Let me know how yours turned out. What other herbs have you successfully cultivated in water?

The post Easy Tutorial For Making Self-Watering Herb Jars From Cuttings appeared first on Zaga Diy.

Today I’d like to share with you a few tips and tricks I learnt from caring for our orchid this year, and also experiment with a new potting medium- clay pebbles.

First, a few general rules for caring for your orchid:

Positioning your orchid: Phalaenopsis orchids don’t like direct sunlight. In nature, they thrive in humid, tropical climates, growing on tree branches and between rocks near water streams. It’s pretty tricky finding a place they fancy in your regular home environment. So far our orchid’s favorite place seems to be by our living room window, facing east, in partial shade most hours of the day. Anything darker than that and the plant starts slumping, and anything lighter and its leaves start burning.

Watering your orchid: I know they say orchids like moisture, but from my experience, if you don’t want your plant rotting, it safer if you let it stay on the dry side. I try to water ours no more than once a week, and in the winter months sometimes even every 10-14 days. The best is to check the potting medium- if it still looks wet, I hold on watering. If it looks dry- it’s ok to go ahead and water. Make sure your orchid pot has drainage holes at the bottom! I find that the best way to water our orchid is to place the orchid pot in a large plastic basin or container filled with distilled water (only the roots need water, don’t let the water level reach the leaves) for about 15 minutes, and then let all the water drain out from the holes at the bottom of the pot into the sink before returning the orchid to its tray near the window.

Fertilizing your orchid: I use liquid orchid fertilizer every two weeks when it blooms, and once a month when dormant. The easiest is to add the fertilizer (read the instructions for quantities) to the distilled water I use to water the plant. Use the same method mentioned above- let the orchid sit in the fertilized water for about 15 minutes, and then let the water drain in the sink before returning the orchid to its favorite spot near the window. Forgot to use fertilizer for a couple of months? No biggy. Our orchid still flowered even when I used less fertilizer.

Pruning, repotting, and general maintenance: As a general rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to repot your orchid every 1-2 years. This is your chance to check the orchid’s roots and see that your orchid is happy and healthy.

Here’s what our orchid looked like after if finished blooming a month ago:

Since I had recently purchased a new clear glass ikea plant pot, I decided now would be a good time to repot it (glass looks nicer than plastic).

Another problem I faced was I saw tiny aphids crawling around the roots of the plant. So I wanted to be able to rinse the orchid roots under water to try and get rid of them.

I asked my friend Nadav to drill a hole in the Ikea pot ( remember we said how important proper water drainage is?) I’m actually surprised the pot doesn’t come with holes to begin with.

I then gently lifted the orchid out of the plastic container, careful not to injure the roots in the process.

After cleaning away the potting medium and removing the dead leaf, the orchid roots looked like this-

I took a pair of clean scissors (I cleaned my scissors with soap and water, dried them, and then sprayed them with 70% isopropyl alcohol just to make sure they were completely sterile. You don’t want to introduce viruses to your plant) and started trimming the roots that looked dry/brown and dead to me. Anything green was left untouched. If I wasn’t sure- better safe than sorry, I just let them be.

The next step (and actually a bit experimental for me) was to take clay pebbles instead of orchid potting medium and repot the orchid.

The reason I decided to try clay pebbles was that I suspected the aphids that infested my plant were introduced via the potting medium last fall. I was looking for an alternative potting medium that wouldn’t host parasites as easily, and found a post on an Israeli gardening forum where one of the gardeners tried replacing her potting medium with clay pebbles. It turned out to be a huge success, with her orchid thriving. Since I have a lot of clay pebbles anyway at home (I use a hydroponic system for growing herbs), I decided to give it a try.

The last step was to trim the spikes, or stems.

I took my scissors, cleaned them again, and cut the spikes about 1 inch (2.5 cm) above the node, which is the little bump or connector you see between two sections on the stem.

I chose to cut the orchid above the base node, because last year I trimmed the stems halfway and I didn’t like the way the spike regrew sideways. I much prefer the plant conserve its energy during the winter months and regrow new spikes from the base.

After trimming the spike, take a cotton swab, dip it in water, and sprinkle with cinnamon. then gently swab the tips of the raw spikes.

Doing this prevents your orchid from contracting illnesses.

Your’e done! put your orchid back in its favorite place, and don’t forget to show it lots of tender loving care (:

The post Orchid Care 101- What I’ve Learned From Caring for Our Orchid appeared first on Zaga Diy.

What you’ll need:

• A round block of wood- any block will do, I bought a simple steak plate at the local Dollar store.
• A set of three small wheels.
• Drill/Screwdriver
• Pencil for marking

First, place your three wheels on the wood plate and mark where you’d like to add screws.

Then take a drill, and gently add a small hole in each marking, without going in too deep – it’s just to help the screws find their way into the wood, so choose a drill bit that is slightly thinner than your screws and make sure it’s gold coloured (meaning it’s meant to be used on wood).

Then take your screwdriver (our drill is also our screwdriver) and screw the wheels into place.

And that’s it! Now you can wheel your plants away…I also like to tip over empty wine bottles I fill with water, so that the plants stay hydrated. You can either tip them as is, or use a Terracotta plant babysitter – I have about four of them and they’re great.

Let me know how your’s turned out!

The post Diy Plant Caddy/Dolly appeared first on Zaga Diy.