I wrote myself a note to remember to take photos of the plants in the basement for this blog post. Not thinking, just writing, I wrote: take photos of the basement garden. Ha! The basement garden, I suppose that's what it is.
Here's what you see as you come down the stairs into our unfinished basement.
The "green wall" is where many of the bromeliads that spend the warm months outdoors hangout for the cold months.
Looking towards the westside...
Towards where I started—years ago—with this insane basement garden business. Back then all I over-wintered was a few nonhardy agaves, cactus and other succulents. I still think of this as the xeric side of the basement.
Whereas the other side (where we started this tour) likes it a little more humid.
Of course if I'm being honest, some of the bromeliads have infiltrated the dry side. It's a space thing.
The hanging staghorn trashcan lid planter...
And one of the ceramic hanging leaves with tillandsia and Lemmaphyllum microphyllum, aka bean fern.
Taking a few steps east, back towards the bromeliads, I turn north and you see our guest "bedroom".
Not really a room, so much as a corner.
Did you notice the Tillandsia usneoides in the above photo? It's much happier indoors when in a hanging situation, rather than lying on a flat surface.
So this year I'm trying it on a belt hanger. It's an easy way to hang it, then take it down to let it soak, and rehang it when it's almost dry.
Standing next to the bed now I'm taking this photo facing south, back towards the laundry area and to the left of that, the half bath we added. This is not a glamorous basement, but rather a hard working one.
Turning towards the plants at the foot of the bed.
The hanging trashcan lid planter is hooked over the front of an old armoire. I take it down to soak it, and then hang it back up. The old towel keeps it from scratching the wood.
Close up of the plants to the side of the armoire, including a couple tall Pachypodium lamerei.
Plants on the metro shelving unit...
And now turning to look east, at my desk.
It's a pretty nice place to work, surrounded by plants.
I've been working on the PowerPoint presentations that will accompany the book release, thus the book is near at all times!
There is a plant peninsula that juts out between my desk and Andrew's work space against the east wall. We'll look at it from the other side in a bit.
Walking back around and over to the laundry area, this utility sink comes in very handy. When I took these photos a trio of bargain ($5) bromeliads were getting a soak, they're destined to be part of the holiday mantlescape.
Adjacent to the sink, leaning up against the outside of the bathroom wall, is the expanded metal piece that hangs on the side of the garage in the summertime.
Moving over to look at the plants gathered around the bottom of the hanging green wall. The Nepenthes alata that over-winter here, on the cement floor, seem to be much happier than the one that hangs.
It must stay more humid here? These plants retained their pitchers all through last winter.
Whereas on this one, that hangs, they started to dry up.
I suppose I should move it lower on the "wall".
The "wall" is actually a section of wire fencing hung from a 2x4...
There's another 2x4 at the bottom for weight. Here you can see I finally bought a humidifier, well two actually. I was hesitant to run them in the basement because we already live in an environment prone to mold, but the plants seem to like the extra moisture and so far it doesn't seem excessive.
A quick look at Andrew's workspace...
Back at the green wall...
And then around the corner, at the peninsula, which unfortunately is right in front of the heater, but lower part is strictly an air intake so it's not blowing hot air out at the plants.
Looking west, back towards my desk and the xeric plants on the far wall.
And one last shot, from the same angle, but a couple of steps backwards. Hope you enjoyed the tour!
I also took a video tour of the basement, but since I have no way of knowing if the Blogger software wants to play nice with the video or not, it will be a surprise for both of us if it works! It works!
Weather Diary, Dec 3: Hi 48, Low 35/ Precip 0
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