Japanese String Gardening

Cathy and I went to a fun Wine and Design class at our local nursery to learn about Japanese String Gardening ("kokedama")...side note: Candy was my wine and design buddy before she moved out of the state - so I talked Cathy into coming with me :) Miss you Candy!). I had no idea what this was or if I wanted to learn about it, but it was a short class and we thought what the heck, we'll do dinner right after so the night won't be a bust if the class isn't good. But it was fun, and I love how they turned out - and I will definitely be doing this project again. It's basically making holders for plants other than traditional pots - in this case we encased one plant in twine, and the other in moss.

There are different ways to do this, we learned two different methods and can vary it up with other materials now that we have the gist of it.

For the first one: Select a small plant that won't get too tall, trailing plants are exceptionally good for this type of gardening. Cut a one foot square of landscape material (it's sold in rolls, is black fabric that you lay down under soil to help keep the weeds down. I used it here when making my herb pallet garden), remove the plant from it's pot and place it along with a little more plant soil in the middle of the fabric. Bunch the fabric up around the plant, hold it in one hand and with the other start wrapping twine around and around the plant. Make sure to change direction when wrapping, the idea is to completely cover the dirt leaving the leaves sticking up out of the top - it looks like a ball of yard when done. Insert a long piece of wire and shape into a hanger if you plan to hang it up.

we tucked small pieces of moss around the top where there were any holes in the twine

an example hanging at the nursery

For the second one: you need a piece of thin chicken wire (about a foot), shape it into a circle (or other shape like a cone, egg shaped, oblong...up to you) and close the circle by bending the loose ends of chicken wire around the other end. I have a short video of the class instructor talking about shaping the wire below. Line the entire thing on the inside with sheet moss, add a little dirt to the bottom and then insert a plant (out of it's pot) and bend the top of the wire in to help hold the plant in. Do the same thing with a long piece of wire to make a hanger if you want.

To water: submerge either one into a bucket of water for a few minutes, let it drain and then hang it back up.