wishful wednesdays {indoor greenery}

One thing this Lazy Lady does best is fantasize about the future.  I'm not very good at living "in the now," I'm always thinking about the next recipe we should make, or couch we should buy, or city we'll live in, or job I could have, and where we'll be in 1, 3, 5, or 15 years.  It's not really the healthy way to live, buuuut sometimes I come up with some really great futures. . . 

I think one of the hardest parts of living in Chicago, and being from Portland, is the lack of greenery.  I miss walking amongst trees that weren't strategically planted in perfect rows to represent neighborhoods and parks.  I love plants. I love green. I love the smell of grass, and the look of Fall.  New Spring flowers and Old-Growth Forests.  But, I live in big city Chicago, so I have to create my own flora.  I have never been that bothered by the amount of rainfall in the Pacific Northwest, because the more it rains the more lush and vibrant the greenery becomes.

We have a back yard at our apartment but it is shared and we've already taken over enough with our BBQ and picnic table.  I'd love a deck, but that's another post all together.  On top of that I don't want to invest in a garden when I know we aren't going to be in this apartment for very long.  Sure you could go out and buy some terracotta pots and some indoor plants, but I want something a little more unique than that.  So I've found some fun solutions to my plantless living.

First up Indoor Trees!

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These are Indoor Citrus trees.  Calamondin Orange trees and Meyer-Lemon trees to be exact.  These trees blossom and produce fruit all year round.  They are beautiful and unusual and, once you have them a while, they produce edible fruits that are great for cocktails!!  I love the way they are used in the top photo, so regal and stately.

I love love love using fresh herbs when cooking but at the grocery store they are way too expensive and at the farmer's market they give you so much, it all goes bad. 

These pots from Sagaform are a super stylish way to grow your own herbs indoors, without having to worry about the crazy climate changes we have here in Chicago.  I'm really thinking about getting one of these.  They also come in a single and double pot.

Terrariums are a great way to bring a little green indoors and they are growing *pun intended* in popularity. 

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There are so many different shapes and sizes of terrariums.  You can make them out of so many different objects, you can hang them from the ceiling, hang them on a wall, or place them on a table.  They are so fun and versatile and act as your own sustainable min-garden.  My favorite part about terrariums is how silly you can make them.  More and more I keep seeing  people using little toys, or making little characters out of clay to decorate their terrariums and tell a little story with.

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Look at those little Gnomes!!

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This is actually an air plant, as opposed to the succulents and mosses that fill most terrariums.

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This terrarium in a cake stand is my Favorite!  I love cake stands and want to own every shape and color, but I don't bake cakes that often, or really any other treats that could live in a cake stand.  (I love to bake but The Man doesn't really eat sweets, so there's no one to share with).  This would be a great solution, so instead of baking cakes all the time, I buy some cake stands to make terrariums out of! (One question though . . . how did they get it in there??)

Vertical Gardens have also recently become popular. There are a few different companies/people who have designed some pretty ingenious ways to turn a wall into a garden.

 All the green you want, using only a fraction of the space!

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These are from the company Woolly Pockets.  It's a great family owned company that has created this new way to grow plants, both indoors and out.  The Woolly Pockets are made of a breathable felt and a built-in moisture barrier.  The photos above show the "Wally," a system of pockets you hang on your wall using the screws and fasteners provided. Here is a diagram of how it works:

Here's what the Wally's look like before the plants have grown over them.

Woolly Pocket also has the "Meadow" and "Islands," which are plant holders that sit on the ground.

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Cool replacement for a coffee table!

Another way cool option for a vertical wall is the Flora Grubb Succulent Vertical Wall.

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It looks like a picture or painting hung on the wall, but it's actually alive!

Here is a close-up of the wall above. 

O.K. So, you can't really have these indoors.  They have to drain, so unless you can live with wet moldy flooring, these have to be kept outside.  BUT, it is something that you can move from place to place.  You could still own and grow one of these and live in an apartment, if you had some outdoor space, and you could bring it with you if you decide to move. 

Either way, they are Gorgeous! And I want one.

Here is a photo of the system without the succulents in it:

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They are sold in 20"X20" trays, each containing 45 slanted potting cells.  The trays are a modular system so you can create what ever size or shape, (well, what ever boxy shape using the 20"X20" trays) you'd like.  When you start them out you have to plant them flat and let them grow flat for a while so that the roots grow into the cells and develop.  Otherwise as soon as you hang it on the wall they'll all fall out.

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They really are plant art, beautiful succulent paintings.  These vertical gardens are so unique and incredible, I can't stop staring at them.

I want every single one of these plants and planters in my house.  I want some trees by the doorway, some terrariums hanging from the ceiling, an herb pot on my kitchen counter and vertical gardens covering my walls.

How about you? Do you have a need for green?  Do any of these look amazing to you? Or are you a bigger fan the classic planting pots? 

Tell me, I want to know!!

P.S. I've found even more ideas for getting green indoors that are even wackier than these, and I'll show you next week (on an actual Wednesday).