Ella ella ella eh eh eh

So in the midst of all this stenciling, I was also able to check another one of my long-standing to-dos off my list.  I've had this large plant for a couple of years.  I have no idea what it is, but I saw another one online that looked very similar that its owner described as an umbrella tree, so that's what I've decided it is (hence my Rihanna reference).

If you know me, you know I don't have a particularly green thumb, so you can imagine my delight that this tree has proven extremely easy to take care of, and has grown by probably two feet since the time I got it.  It occurred to me a while ago (in a "yeah, I think I read that once in a book" kind of way) that as the plant keeps getting bigger, its roots are also probably growing, and probably want more room to expand.  Not that I know anything about any of this, it just seemed like a logical conclusion.  Plus, the container that it was in was this sort of woven basket kind of thing that was just looking kind of old and grubby.

So I had spent some time searching online for a nice big planter that would give my "tree" enough space and also add a little something special to the room.  Finally found one on Joss and Main for a decent price that fit both those requirements.  It was a planter made to look like a wooden bucket with a kind of distressed finish that I liked.  Here's a couple of pictures where you can see the size comparison between the woven basket that the tree was in with the new bucket.

I think this should be enough room for the tree to grow into for quite a while.  Certainly long enough for it to grow another couple of feet, at which point I might want to get rid of it anyway because it'll be huge!  To make sure I had some proper drainage, I got a plastic nursery pot to put inside the bucket, which the tree would actually be planted in.

The nursery pot fit inside the bucket, but unfortunately the plastic pot had these handles that stuck out from the main part that made it sit unevenly in the bucket, which you can see here.

To fix this, I decided to try to trim off the nursery pot's handles and some of the rim, since it was just made out of plastic.  I don't have any fancy tools, but it turned out a simple scissors worked just fine for what I needed.  When I was done, it fit perfectly!

So the next step in solving the drainage issue was putting something in there to protect the inside of the planter from sopping up too much sitting water and possibly discoloring, or worse - seeping through to my hardwood floors.  For some ideas, I went back to the old woven basket, which it turned out had this plastic sheeting lining the inside of it for this very purpose.

I decided something like this could probably work just fine in my new bucket too, so I found some plastic and spread it out around the bottom of the bucket before putting the nursery pot in.

Once I got everything put together, it was just a matter of transferring the tree into the new pot and adding some more potting soil.  Pretty soon, she was looking pretty damn good if I do say so myself.

Now that it's back in its home in the living room, I think the tree is looking and feeling pretty good.  The transferring process didn't seem to harm it at all, and it certainly looks way better than it did before.  The larger bucket just seems to balance the top-heaviness of the tree out more than the tiny little basket did, and I think this planter is more cohesive with the overall look of the house.  Success!

In other plant news, my herb garden is coming along nicely as well.  Maybe I'm an awesome gardener and didn't even know it?  Or maybe I just choose super-easy plants to grow?  Probably the latter.  At any rate, everything is still alive and even thriving!

Well, make that *most* everything is alive - the basil is really suffering.  You can see it here in this picture, the tiny pitiful plant front and center that's being swallowed by the big scary parsley plant.  A few days ago I tried trimming back the parsley and trying to position the basil so it would get more sun, so we'll see if that helps at all.

You might have noticed a couple extra plants in there that weren't in the original batch, and those are cayenne plants, courtesy of my mom (thank you!).

She gave them to me as a way to keep away the squirrels who run rampant pretty much all around my house.  Either the cayenne is super-effective at doing just that or the squirrels can't get to my deck from the surrounding trees, because I don't seem to have had any issues with them eating anything yet.  I will now knock on wood that it stays that way.