How-to: My Zen Bathroom

Two of my guiltiest pleasures in the world are taking baths in my deluxe bejetted tub and reading Martha Stewart Living magazine. I try not to read MSL too much because I don’t want all my projects to look like a crappy shadow of the Stewart team’s wonderful ideas. Today’s tutorial is inspired by a combination of this idea from the January 2012 issue of MSL:

…and the bathroom design below. I just *love* bathrooms with living plants. Incredibly relaxing – it’s nice to see something organic in an otherwise sterile looking environment.

 

Last summer, I made a point of including potted plants to help improve air quality in my home. However, six months later, my succulents aren’t doing so hot, my aloe has outgrown its pot, and I’ve got a cactus in need of repotting in deeper soil. Hold up – won’t repotting plants indoors make for a huge, dirt-filled  disaster? Not according to Martha Stewart!

Following MSL’s lead, I assembled my very own indoor gardening toolkit to help contain the mess of repotting plants.

indoor gardening toolkit supplies

a wide & shallow tub

cheap trowel

seeds

a small bit of potting soil

a few pebbles to help with water drainage (see this gardening 101 post to learn more)

though it doesn’t need to live with your toolkit, a dust buster and/or hand broom with dustpan are helpful

small watering can

plant light bulbs and lamps to help your plants grow on cloudy days

check out my toolkit 

I really love the look of terra cotta (clay) pots, and I’ve had good luck with them, so I’m keeping a small one in my toolkit as well. I read somewhere that terra cotta pots’ water-absorbing properties are good for keeping plants alive. Bonus.

I didn’t grab a fresh bag of potting soil or pebbles at the store for this because I knew I had some out on my frozen balcony. After hauling in and defrosting said  gardening supplies, I was set to tackle repotting my aloe, cactus, and surviving succulents.

moving aloe to a bigger pot

new “tropical plant” 

Really. All the label says is “tropical plant.” Anybody know what the heck this is, other than pretty?

newly planted herb seeds: dill, cat grass, sage, chives & cumin

And now, with my soon-to-be herbs starting to germinate, and my repotted plants settling in, my happy place is once again zen. All it took was a rubbermaid tub and a dust buster, both of which are now easily tucked away. I’ll let you guys know when the seeds start to sprout!