July | 2011 | Sprout Home

Midsummers wedding

By Sprout Home Brooklyn, July 30th, 2011, Brooklyn

thanks to photographer Jen Huang

Trees, trees, trees, trees

By Sprout Home Brooklyn, July 29th, 2011, Brooklyn

Why am I saying trees 4x in a row? Because we received the motherload of trees this morning. Get in here and get the pick of the litter, the cream of the crop. Pines, Japanese maples, get them while their hot people! Plant a tree today!!

Dang it maples! I said “No Parking!”

There’s the guy who brought us the trees, with some of the trees in the foreground.

More trees

Meanwhile our next door neighbor’s crape myrtle that she got from us is doing great. Look at the beautiful red blossoms. Dreams really do come true!

Crape Myrtle. Feeling fine

Finally here is a little tree-inspiration. I think there are some shots of people planting trees in Central Park in the video– which I feel like must be illegal or something- but still the sentiment is nice.

Large Branch Arrangements

By Sprout Home Brooklyn, July 25th, 2011, Brooklyn

Sometimes you just want to go big and bust out with a majorly large branch arrangement. We had fun doing a couple of these for a wedding over the weekend.

Branch Arrangement #1

Branch Arrangement #1 and #2

Heat and Plants

By Sprout Home Brooklyn, July 22nd, 2011, Brooklyn

Well I just checked the weather and it says it is 104 degrees. Yikes.

Ho Ho Ho. I am the SUN KING.

Make sure to stay out of the sun as much as possible, wear a hat and drink water. Taking care of yourself is the proirity. If you got that covered, what about your outdoor plants? What’s going through their minds?

In extreme heat like this, it is important to hit outdoor plants in containers with water 2x a day. The best time for watering is early in the morning. Its cooler for you and it lets the plants absorb water before the hottest part of the day. The water also tends not to evaporate as quickly as later in the day. The next best time is later afternoon/early evening. However be careful: if you are approaching evening try to avoid getting water on the leaves of the plants because powdery mildew or other fungus type nastiness may occur.

Another safe-guard is to work with plants that can tolerate drought. Some such tough guys we have in the yard include:

Ice Plant

Delopserma Cooperi: (Ice plant) South African succulent. Does nicely among rocks and drained soils. Great pink flowers which should stay until September.

Rudbeckia

Rudbeckia: (aka Black Eyed Susan) A coneflower like echinacea. Which means butterflies. Full sun, drought tolerant.


Oregano!

This is a very cool kind of decorative oregano called “Kent Beauty”. It may be named after some of the beauties that live on Kent street. I’m not sure.

Thunderhead Pine

This little pine is called Thunderhead, which is ironic, because it doesn’t need to see rain very often.

Panicum grass

Panicum Grass, we have the above, with red blades (growing 3-4ft. tall) as well as a taller 5ft. variety that works well as a privacy maker because it is so thick. They don’t need too much water.

Sedums

Sedums. Varieties include: Autumn Joy (which will get some nice pink flowers when we get out of this summer mess), T-rex and others.

Drought tolerant label

There are other plants which do well with less water, just look for the little cactus sign on the label. Stay cool out there!

Plants for the House

By Sprout Home Brooklyn, July 18th, 2011, Brooklyn

We’ve gotten quite a few nice house plants just recently. Some of them have been placed in brand new constructions and terrariums. Others are awaiting your personal creative decisions.