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iloveschiaparelli · 6 months ago

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This might come out a little bit late because my wrist is KILLING me but it's time for new garden update!!

I am, in fact, looking for advice for Spider Plant, African Violet, and random thing attached to my plants. This is a long post but if you are knowledgeable in any of those and would be willing to skip down to the section about those problems I would super appreciate it <3

First of all the spider plant is STILL flowering and making many new babies. I'm thinking about starting a plant section of my art business (which is usually inactive but I've been thinking of booting up again) so this is great news.

The two babies I propogated recently are doing well, for the most part. I didn't propogate them at the same time, so they are at different stages of progress. The first one went into a head-shaped pot with pebbles at the bottom for extra drainage and has found its home at the foot of my bed so that I can feel like I have some form of life in here besides Rookie sneaking in to take naps on my pillow or in my clean laundry when I'm not looking. The bedroom baby seems to have taken root, actually, judging by the fact that just now I pulled gently at it from the base and it didn't budge an inch from the soil, whereas when I first potted it it was looser than a 1900s social pariah (feminine). The leaves are also seeming to stand up straighter.

The second one however is just in a plastic container with no special drainage. The only reason I propogated it at all is because I was sitting watching My Hero Academia with my roommate and one of our friends when I looked Slightly to the right and had The Urge to Repot. I tried so hard to resist, I really did. I fought The Urge for at least 30 mins before finally, in the middle of an episode, i just stood up, went out on the balcony at 10.30 at night and propogated it without warning.

I'm pretty sure the only words I offered as explanation in the moment were "The plant was calling." I looked like a madman shoveling dirt into a cup in the middle of the night when previously I had shown zero indication that I would be leaving the couch until bedtime.

It's doing alright, the soil seems overly wet but that is probably because the plant is new enough that it hasn't yet developed the roots to drink up. I just need to give it time while I find a proper pot for it. I think I have one in my bedroom actually, I just need to paint it.

On the OTHER hand, the main spider plant is also turning brown at the ends which is kind of concerning. I don't know if it's the stem from the baby I just took off, drawing nutrients away (see blurry photo of long stem turning brown and dying) or if it's some kind of consequence of me accidentally overwatering her last week because I thought a water stake was a good idea (I'm never using water stakes again). If anyone has any insight on that, i would be thrilled to hear it. It's indoors so unless some nasty bug has gotten in, it's unlikely to be bug eating it.

One thing that I DO know bugs are eating is my BASIL!!!!!! I don't know if you guys are familiar with spotted lanternflies, but they're super invasive here in the US and in my state are actually considered "Under Quarantine" which means that affected counties/cities are kept track of and, if you live in one, you need a permit & training course on finding and eliminating spotted lanternflies before you can sell any kind of organic matter outside of the quarantine area. They eat grapevines like mad which is threatening to VA's economy (they're all big wine people)

Their main source of food is Tree of Heaven, which coincidentally is ALSO an invasive species from Asia. Including kudzu, bamboo and asian pear trees this is 4 plants and 1 HORRIBLE little bug that are wreaking havoc on Virginia's ecosystem because of being DELIBERATELY!!! introduced as an ornamental (Decorative!) plant. (bug hitched a ride) Unbelievable.

Anyway they also like to eat basil and I have my basil outside so that it can get a sufficient amount of sun to keep from wilting all the time, so guess what I find every time I go outside! This little PECKERHEAD (or his brothers) just hanging out on my basil sitting perfectly still just like I'm his dad and I just walked into the room and he's trying to pretend he wasn't just on his phone. Anyway today I went to get some leaves for cooking and like half of them were just absolutely emacerated with brown/black spots and holes because the lanternfly nymphs have been nibbling on them. Varmints.

Spotted lanternflies are vulnerable to neem oil (So are brown marmorated stinkbugs btw), tea tree oil, and peppermint oil. I mean to purchase whichever one is harmless to my other plants to spray the lanternflies with to kill them. They're also wildly attracted to milkweed, but it's actually toxic to them, so management strategies for spotted lanternflies often suggest planting milkweed on your property so that they will drink the sap and then die.

I intend to, once I am not struggling to pay bills, purchase a native milkweed plant and stick it allll the way on the end of the balcony AWAY from my other plants in order to draw the lanternflies away and hopefully kill them.

I'm not looking forward to cleaning up the bodies. In fact, a couple minutes before taking the above photo I actually leaned over to take a pic of another one and got a dead one in my hair. I was mortified when I sat up and realized. I'm really, really, really going to hate it when they start reaching maturity, because mature spotted lanternflies are HUGE. They're like 2 inches long, 1 inch wide, and fat-looking. I saw one smeared on the pavement last fall and wanted to throw up. I don't know if I have the strength to kill them myself, which is why I'm hoping neem oil spray and milkweed will kill them for me without having to deal with smashed moth remains,

Here are the life stages of spotted lanternfly, map of their invaded areas, and pictures of the Tree of Heaven for your information to kill/manage them <3

PEsTS aside, I have really good news! My wildflowers have all sprouted!!!!!!

Looking back, I wish I'd verified whether they were native or not. I hope I don't poison the landscape when they go to seed. Once they start flowering, I'll try to identify any invasive or harmful species and weed them out, I suppose.

They first started showing green on a day when i was feeling especially depressed about my recent breakup, so it was HUGE mood boost. It honestly felt like God was like "Yeah ya'll it's time to go green. Right now go go go go go!!"

Don't mind the plant water stakes, they're empty I just don't have a great place to put them right now. I intend to keep them only so I can use them when I go out of town for a few days at a time, so that I don't need to ask my roommates to water my basil daily, or whatever. The first two pictures I took when I first noticed the seedlings, and the third one is from today, along with most of the other photos.

One thing that I am concerned about is that I'm noticing these little banana-shaped things (pods? eggs? seeds?) that look like they've been clamped/clipped onto the leaves of many of the wildflower seedlings, especially the ones on the left end of the planter. They almost look like hairclips that have been shut onto the leaves? I'm really confused. They're pretty dry looking, and my friend James broke one apart and it just kinda disintegrated. (I was too wigged out to touch it) They can't have been there very long, a couple days before I noticed at least.

If anyone has ANY idea what these are, I'd really appreciate it. I'm worried that they're bug eggs. I really hate interacting with/looking at bugs, especially bug eggs, so I tried looking it up myself and had to stop because uhh... pictures of bug eggs. But they definitely don't look like part of the plant, especially since this planter is a mixture of different species and they're showing up on multiple types.

The beeblossom, which I've learned is also called a Whirling Butterflies or a Wand Flower much more commonly than it's called a beeblossom, is doing quite well! The leaves and stems have shifted completely from red to green, and it's showing signs that it might possibly flower for a second time. I really hope it does, the flowers last time only lasted a couple days and I don't remember if I got any good pictures but they were really pretty. I've repotted it into a neat woven-basket pot that I got at the local garden center (This garden center has a cat mascot! That lives at the store! I love him. He let me pet him.)

The lavender also went into a similar pot, to get it out of the rice pot that it was in before. Also at this garden center I found a catnip plant!!!! Rookie has been loving it whenever I give him a leaf, but surprisingly I don't think he's figured out the source plant because he doesn't go up to it and sniff it at all. I think he's more interested by the finches, cardinals, and robins that have (finally) found our birdfeeder. To give you an idea of how much the birds have been vibing, this feeder was full to the top only a week ago.

The Echinopsis babies are doing OK. Echinopsis generally do a terrible job of communicating how they are doing. They don't seem to be especially active in growing? Neither the babies nor the parent. I suspect know I repotted the parent into too-small of a pot, so I hope to remedy that at the next opportunity. Just.... large pots take up so much space!!! And they're much more expensive than small pots, especially since I'm so averse to plastic containers due to issues with overwatering plants in plastic containers.

The Echinopsis babies haven't been drinking as much as I'd like, but they HAVE been drinking, which is a sign that the roots are functioning just fine. They were each able to take a root or two from the parent when I propogated them about a month ago, so it's good to know that they're doing alright down under the soil. I'm thinking about selling each of them for $35, with the hand-painted pot, but I hate to part with them. I get so emotionally attached.

The Thyme, on the other hand, has shown ZERO signs of growth and it's been 12 days. I know they have a long germination time but between their complete silence and the fact that I planted them in the wrong soil (I should have used sandy loam but it's just Miracle Gro) and the soil has been wetter than a jellyfish since I planted, AND they're just from a dollar tree Herb Rocket, I'm starting to become suspicious that they're duds. I'll keep watering and watching them until after I hit the 28 days, but I'm definitely not feeling great about the thyme.

The herb rocket was supposed to be planted as just one roll, also, but because I was using a long container I took some scissors and just cut the rolled up seed tape in half lengthwise before rerolling and planting. The directions were also ambiguous as to whether I was supposed to leave the top of the rolls visible, level with the soil, or to cover them up with the 1/4 inch soil that I've begun to notice is typical of planting instructions.

The left roll you can see is a little bit messed up, because the other day in a fit of disappointment I pulled it out of the dirt and unrolled it to check for anything, ANYTHING, ANY!!! SIGNS OF GROWTH! I found nothing. But that, not before, is the point when I googled the germination time of thyme, then I felt like an idiot and did my best to stuff it back into the soaking wet soil.

God help me with this plant.

My roommate pulled out a little mushroom decoration (she loves mushrooms) for the garden, initially intended to go in the wildflower planter. It was there for about an hour before I took it out, because I didn't want it to kill any of the wildflower growth. Instead I put it between the two thyme rockets. Hopefully, when (if?) the thyme actually starts growing, it will look like there's a little mushroom home nestled between the two shrubs.

Another plant whose performance I am currently dissatisfied with is the African Violet. It's wilting again. At this point it's like, "What am I doing wrong now?" What makes it even worse is that this is the only plant that was given to me as like a, "nurture this plant as a metaphor for nurturing your spirit!" so it's even more depressing that I'm having difficulty keeping it alive. I feel like this plant's survival is tied to my success as a human being (Not really, but that's the vibe).

The leaves are just totally limp. Not really mushy, but I could see them getting that way if it weren't for the fact that they usually just dry up and wither away first. The soil is very wet, which I don't understand because I've been doing my best not to overwater it and it's been a week since it's last douse. The leaves have lost their yellow tinge from overwatering, but only on the topside. The bottomside of the leaves still look brownish, as if they're dried up (except that they arent) If there are any African Violet experts in the crowd, I would LOVE for you to lend me any advice you can give me from the picture <3 I love you.

I've been pruning off dead sections and kept it indoors with a stable temperature in a spot where it gets plenty of indirect light, so I don't understand what the issue is. I'm beginning to blame plastic containers for all of my problems due to all of my Problem Plants being in plastic. (Spider Plant momma, new baby Spider Plant, African Violet, Thyme, Basil in the early months, Beeblossom, probably the catnip soon too).

I desperately want to move all my plastic planted plants to ceramic/terracotta or woven containers, but the issue is just that plastic is the cheapest material for planters, and since I've been upsizing, I genuinely do not have the budget for terracotta right now. Maybe in 2 months, but by then the Basil & Echinopsis will already have had their growth stifled, the Thyme will be drowned, and the African Violet will be well and truly dead.

I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the snake plants in this lighting, but they are doing alright also. Their roots haven't quite put down in the new soil, but I think they're kind of growing anyways??? I dunno.

Finally, here is a photo of the Potted Plant Empire as it is today, excepting the indoor plants and the wildflower planter being cut off:

That little pot at the end is my roommate's rosemary, and the orange glass pot is her lavender. Mine is in the woven basket next to it.

I feel like that guy in the recent Drive Time app advertisement. "I FEEL STRONGG!!!"

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harvestmoss · 2 years ago

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🔮The Altar

Hello, let me share my knowledge of the altar in terms of witchcraft.

An altar is a witch’s sacred place to perform spellwork, meditate, focus energy, do readings, and keep their most prized possessions. It’s a spiritual focus point and a reflection into the magical self. An altar is typically a physical place with purposeful objects, these objects either have a spiritual significance to you, or represent an element (air, earth, fire, water, spirit), an archetype or energy who’s influence you’d want to keep on your altar. Altars come in all sizes and may be the size of your pocket, to your whole living space, wherever you place your altar is up to you.

Whatever you put on your altar is up to you. altars can range from being specifically for one type of work or can be an all purpose one. They can be changed each season or sabbat, or stay the same throughout the whole year. They may be shrines for deities or ancestors or be for personal growth. What the witch deems worthy to be on the altar, it shall be on the altar.

You may want to include these items onto your altar, but they are not a must:

Grimoire

Candles

Statues

The pentacle

Flowers / Plants

Incense / Cleansing sticks

Toning bowl / Bell

Spices / Herbs / Salt

Crystals / Stones

Blessed water / Moon water

Offerings, food and drinks

Photos / Drawings

Divination tools

Athame / Wand / Boline knife

Cauldron / Chalice

Other various tools…

Cleansing An Altar

One may want to cleanse the space before setting up an altar, before performing a spell, make sure it’s clean from unwanted energies, etc. Cleansing said altar can vary, much like cleansing a space. You can do one of the following:

Do actual cleaning by drying off dust with a wet cloth

Spray blessed water onto the space

Use smoke to cleanse the space

Sound and music may rid of unwanted energies

Place crystals to absorb the energies

Touching the space

Visualizing the space getting cleansed

Use a broom to sweep the unwanted energies away

Perform a cleansing spellwork

Etc...

If you are interested in how my current altar looks and where I store it, and the items that’s on it, and an in depth look into why these items are on my altar. Do please continue to read beyond this line.

Personally, my altar is my whole living space, I use my whole living room for general spellwork, my kitchen for brewery and potions, and my bedroom for sex magic and dream spells. I do, however, have a special place in which I keep all my sacred items, for an easier time to fetch for.

My altar is then kept in my living room, I spend most of my time here, it is my favourite space in my living situation, here the sun is most prominent, I have all my plants here, my work is done here, I keep most important things in this room and me.

Here is a look to what my altar currently looks like, I recently cleaned it:

It is not much now, I hope to get a proper space with shelves and such, and lots more items that I am wishing for. For now, this will do in my tiny space. My altar is stored on top of my drawer, inside my drawer I keep various mundane items, so the altar is strictly what you see in the picture.

Let’s have a look at each item that is stored on my altar:

I keep this beautiful bouquet of dry flowers on my altar. I’ve had these flowers for years now, and they have grown a significant meaning to me as they have traveled with me from one living space to another. They’ve been bleached in the sun for many months from my previous living space, so for me, they have this tender warm feeling of home and warmth. They are also generally very pretty. I keep them in a jar I used once for coffee.

Bones, bones, and lots of bones. I have a dish filled with various bones that I have found myself while foraging, that includes a deer that a fox once killed, mice from owl pellets, and a dead bird that landed in my fiancé’s garden. I have spines, legs, skuls, and lots more unnamed bones, including dead bugs as well that I found on the forest grounds, they give off a shimmering look when in the sun.

In my dish I also keep various rocks, from beaches and cliffs, with holes and none. The big rock I keep outside the dish as it is rather... Well, big. The shimmering rock I found on Bornholm, I cracked open a rock to see the shimmering fools gold inside, and the crescent moon rock with a hole was gifted to me.

For obvious reasons, I keep a candle at my altar for practical spellwork. and in the picture to the left, I thrifted this gorgeous glass ice bucket, in which I keep cleansing sticks of cedar, common sage, stinging nettle, feathers, a wand, my athame, incense, matches, and a small bottle with crystals, which was gifted to me.

Perhaps one of the more peculiar items I keep on my altar is this jar if insects, Once thrifted as a gift to my mother, who then passed it back to me. I keep it mainly for decorations, and it also fits the theming of deceased and strange items I have on my altar.

My absolutly favourite itmes because of how bizarre they are to others. Here from left to right I have a jar of my own hair, to keep a piece of myself on the altar. I have a bottle of baby teeth from my fiancé, to keep a piece of her on my altar, since I love her so dearly. And a little trinket box of my deceased dog’s hair, the last remnants of him before cremation, he is obviously on my altar because of the love I have for him.

Another obvious thing, I keep various crystals on my altar, as well as sea glass in this tiny dish, which sits on top of a bigger dish that has strawberry leaves in it and clear quarts, it is not shown in the picture, but I keep fossils that I’ve found in there too. Selenite and these cave crystals are my favourites, and I use the cave crystal to store my jewellery one to charge them.

I have a small bowl filled with shells and a sea urchin found on various beachs. There’s a tiny pentacle in this bowl, that I believe was from a keychain once. I love the ocean so dearly and swimming in the salty waters brings me much joy, so I keep a piece of the ocean on my altar. I also have a toning bowl on my altar, to help cleanse the space and my tarot cards.

I have a small dish were I keep my cleansing sticks that I’m currently using on, as well as using this dish to snuff out my cleanisng sticks when done, it is also great for catching the ashes when i move around so that I don’t have to clean my floors later. I keep this bowl with legs on my altar to hold my incense sticks, snuffed out matches and herbs. It has been currently cleaned from previous materials, so now it is filled with fresh salt.

Various items. I keep a deck of tarot cards on my altar for readings, I am currently a practitioner in divination and fortune telling, the remaining tarot card collection is on my bookshelf, as well as lenormand and oracle cards. I also have a love potion stored on my altar, that has a love satchel attached to it, the satchel was created by my fiancé years ago. And to the right is my athame, which I actually have hanging on the wall. It was a Yule gift from my, once again, fiancé. I treasure it ever so much.

This should conclude what is stored on my altar in this current moment. In the future I wish to have more space, more items such as a boline knife, more big crystals, more bones, jars of dried flowers, and statues.

I hope you had a lovely read, and got some inspiration as to what to keep on your altar. Till next time.

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