Book our work shop now!

 

Come along and learn all about Terrariums. Our staff  will demonstrate how to create exciting table top terrarium displays using a range of different plants.

 

Part proceeds to BEYOND BLUE.

 

Register now at Serenity Nursery- Ph 0885321141

Whose shoes?

 Create it yourself: SHOE GARDEN

 

 Start with a pair of high heels or stilettos. I found these ones at a local op shop. I spray painted the black pair purple. You can use any colour you fancy. Then drill two -three holes right through the sole for drainage.

 

 

 

 

I used Amgro succulent and cacti potting mix. This mix is free draining and perfect for the plants chosen.

 

 

I had fun choosing some succulents from the nursery. The rosette formed succulent acts as a sort of shoe embellishment and the finer variegated succulent will cascade out of the shoe.

 

Fill the pointy toe part of the shoe with soil and then place the plants in. Back fill with soil and press firmly.

 

 

Succulent with pink tinges and pink flowers were matched with the pink stilettos.

Purple spotted succulents were teamed with the purple shoes.

 

Have fun with it.

 

 

 

These boots were made for walking

 

 

 Pretty in pink.

 

 

Thanks for visiting our blog.

Krystal

 

 

 



Creative Christmas...

 

This Christmas wreath is so easy to make at home with material from around the house.  Start with two wire coat hangers and cut off the hook part on both of them using wire cutters. Twist two of the ends together and bend the Wire into a circle. Cut hessian strips about 4cm x 30cm.

 

Thread the wire through the hessian folding the hessian back and forth as you go.

 

Keep threading until all the wire is covered.

 

 

Once all hessian is threaded on twist the remaining ends of wire together.

( Cute dog to help optional)

 

 

I finished my wreath off with a wooden heart from Serenity Nursery. I used organza ribbon to hang the wreath from my mirror. There are lots of beautiful Christmas decorations to choose from at Serenity Nursery. Use them in Christmas craft or to decorate your Christmas tree.

 

Krystal

Spiral herb garden

Tim and I held a "Growing Herbs" workshop this week and we spoke about creative ways to grow herbs. The D.I.Y spiral herb garden was intriguing to most of the attendees. It's something easy that you can make with rocks, bricks or any material that can be up cycled.

 

The spiral garden is a great way to get kids involved in gardening and is something they can help build themselves. Use different coloured herbs like opal basil, purple sage and bright green chives. Improve biodiversity by mixing in a few flowering plants such as marigolds and nasturtiums.

 

Krystal

Image via Sweet Local Farm’s flickr

Dad's Veggie House

 

Dad designed and created a enlosed veggie garden on his property in Murray Bridge.  He used  cement sleepers that he made to build up the veggie garden. For ergonomic reasons he built it up three sleepers high.

 

Dad created an island in the middle of the garden house which you can walk around. The island is filled with an abundance of leaffy vegetables. The perimeter is also filled with all kinds of eddibles including parsley, broccolli, spring onions and even ginger.

Outside of the garden house is a lovely freshly planted blueberry BURST. A new variety that produces extra large and flavoursome fruit.

 

Mum and Dad are proud of the chew marks in their cabbages!! No nasty chemicals are used to treat insects. This enables them to use the leafy greens for feeding their pet birds.

 

Dad shows Milton Vadoulis the hard work that has gone into making his dream veggie garden. The most important thing when gardening is getting the soil right and that's why Dad used alot of Plants Plus Groganic to improve the sandy loam when blending his mix.

 

 

Interesting ways with cacti & succulents...

Bright lolli pop cacti give this planter bowl wow factor.

 

Plant a variety of cacti in a low dish. Choose brightly coloured grafted cacti like the "lolli pop" type shown here. We have a great mix of cacti & succulents including cacti in pink, yellow, purple and orange in the garden centre for around $6 ea.

Place your display in a well lit room in the house, patio or veranda.

 

I thought this was a great idea to plant succulents in the crevice of each step. The green life really does soften the hard edges and creates an interesting visual display.

 

Happy Gardening Krystal xx

Project with Pots..& faux plants...

 

So I've got the day off and finally have a few minutes up my sleeve to create this little project. I love indoor plants, and there are many available that are suited to low light conditions but this time I want to use artificial succulents in an arrangement. The style of pots are endless at Serenity Nursery from modern shiny ones to rustic metal. I have chosen heavy paper mache pots. I decided to group a cluster of artificial succulents for a natural/ earthy look.

 

I have used oasis to help hold the plants in place. there are two main types of oasis. The silver gritty foam type which is used in artificial arrangements ( see pic here)  and the green soft foam that holds water and living plants in place.

 

I have simply cut the oasis to fit snug into the pot and then begin to push the succulents into place. It's nice to combine different plant textures like the broad leaf and spiky type.

 

It comes together very quickly.



 

I love this faux greenery available in the gift shop. It's so handy for so many projects. I cut it up and push it in between the succulents to help hide the oasis. It looks real and natural.

 

I'm tucking the fine greenery in here. No need to glue down as it has wire fibres in it that help wrap it around the secure plants.

 

 



 

I love the finished pot displays. Great for those " Hard to Grow" spots in the house.

 

The display makes a cute little addition to my kitchen, well i think so.

 

Enjoy

Krystal xx

Fur Real.

Two dogs sound asleep in their hand-made pooch parlour.

Miniature rocking chair on the right of the balcony.

 

Pampered Pooch keeps watch on his grand palace. The metal balustrade is made from lace metal work and the hanging lanterns are from our gift shop. Astro turf completes the look.

 

One of the great things about running a garden centre is all of the lovely people we meet, most of whom are regular customers. It's fun hearing about every ones projects and what d.i.y jobs they are working on. One of our enthusiastic gardeners, David came in hunting around for a small dolls rocking chair, which we found...( not at all surprising as we stock so many random
 hard to find objects).

David explained to me he was buying the rocking chair for his dogs. Seriously? I asked.

So it turns out a few recent purchases from serenity were in fact going towards the construction and beatification of a lovely hand-crafted dog house made by our talented customer David.

Check it out, this is for real. The house sleeps three dogs, each with their own bed and a
 balcony to share.

This made my day! Krystal

Digging in the Dark!

The TUMBLEWEED Worm Cafe

Tonight Tim and I set up our worm farm.

 While some couples may be watching dating in the dark we are digging in the dark!

The main reason we decided to get a worm farm was to recycle our kitchen scrap waste. It is just horrible to see kitchen scraps go into land fill and pollute the earth. The worm farm we have is the Tumbleweed Worm Cafe from Serenity Nursery. It will turn our scraps into useful garden fertiliser full of beneficial microbes. Worm casting and worm tea will be produced and used as organic soil improver's.

Look what we did:

 There are 4 trays with the kit, but you only need one working tray to start. Keep the others put aside.

Insert the first tray and lay a sheet of news paper into the tray. Soak the soil block in water ( it's provided with the worm cafe). Then lay the soil mixture onto the newspaper.

Top up with some soil from the garden that is  free from inorganic fertilisers.

Use a bucket to catch the worm juice. This can be be diluted with water to the colour of weak tea and watered onto the garden.

You will need about 1000 worms for this worm farm and they will cost around $50 (for approx 1000). May I add that I love worms I think it brings back childhood memories of digging in the dirt.

Carefully place the worms on top of soil and water in.

Place the second tray on top. the tray has tiny holes in the bottom of it so the worms

 can crawl up into it.

Our ceramic compost bin is overflowing with kitchen scraps...

Sprinkle some more dirt over the tiny holes and then spread a layer of kitchen scraps.The scraps will attract the worms up into the second tray and the worm casting will be left in the bottom tray.

Continue the process a few times. It is important to add a sprinkling of dirt over the kitchen scraps every time as worms don't have teeth and need the dirt to help grind the food down.

Every week sprinkle a little dolomite lime or TUMBLEWEED worm farm and compost conditioner ( shown here) ontop of the food scraps. This will help lower the acidity of the kitchen scraps especially acid foods like citrus fruit.

I hope you enjoyed our demonstration.

If you want to find out more visit me in the nursery.I'll be more than happy to talk worms with you.

Krystal x

 First Image via Tumbleweed. Other Images Serenity Nursery

Recyle me pretty.

Make your own pretty pot plants with recycled tin cans.

Here's How:

1. Remove the label off the can
2. Drill some holes in the bottom for drainage.
3. Paint the outside of the tin with house paint or any acrylic paint. You may need to paint 2-3 coats.
4. Once the paint has dried fill up with a premium potting mix such as Plants Plus Terracotta and Tub Potting Mix.
5.  Fill with any in season annuals like pansies or snap dragons.

Makes a cute hand made gift.

Enjoy! Krystal

Image via Makapar

Edible Flowers

Edible Chive flowers

Today in the garden centre I spoke to a friend who often visits our nursery for our diverse range of unusual herbs and vegetables, which she uses in her catering business. Being a foodie and a keen grower of all things edible she joked about the pansy punnets she was buying. It was unlike her to buy a purely decorative plant. However we did laugh when she pointed out to me that the pansy flowers were in fact edible and she had used them to decorate sweet dishes in the past.

It got me thinking about edible flowers and how they can be used in our home cooking. When I was in Sydney recently I ordered a pizza that was topped with zucchini flowers, it was amazing visually and tasted great. Zucchini flowers can also be stuffed with a variety of fillings like creamy ricotta and then baked. I love salads and I always try to add different colours and textures with my greens. Include vibrant coloured flowers and petals to a salad for an unexpected look and taste.

Pansies in pastels or brights are in flower right now and can be frozen into ice cube trays, use the ice cubes in your favourite drink for a pretty visual treat. decorate your next cake with sugar coated pansy or viola flowers.

Try these edible flowers in your home cooking:

Flowers of chives and garlic chives.
Calandula and marigolds.
Nasturtium flowers
Tulbaghia flowers(society garlic)
Citrus blossoms
Tuberous begonias
Pansies
Flowers of pineapple sage
Rose booms
Zucchini flowers

Old school is cool

 A veggie patch on wheels. This image is just adorable.

I love this. I don't know why but I have always loved old teacups, and the idea of incorporating them into a garden appeals to me.

 

 Show off your old doily collection by making them into a table runner. It looks great on a rustic timber table.

 

Gypsophila commonly known as Baby's Breath was used extensively throughout the 80's and 90's in bridal floral decoration. The dainty white flowers fell out of fashion,but now it's back. In fact we have it growing in pots for sale right now. It will grow in the garden and creates a lovely soft border.

 Sunflowers, gerberas, lavender and daisies are old school plants that are becoming more popular in the modern garden. An old bath tub planted  up in all your favourite flowering plants could be a cool way to garden.