Potting soil Basket and necessary liner Assorted annual plants Sphagnum moss Watering can Slow release fertilizer Plant hanger Bracket for hanging your basketPATIENCE- it takes time for plants to fill-in and drape over the basket!Design and Maintenance Tips From Shirley
Make Shirley Bovshow’s Stacked Patriotic Planter: Select 3 terra cotta pots, each smaller than the last. We chose pots 18”, 15” and 8” in diameter. Make sure they have drain holes in them. Tape off the inside of the pots with painter’s tape just below the lip of the pot. Choose whatever colors you want for your special occasion pots. We chose Red, White, and Blue. We used indoor / outdoor acrylic paint. Do two coats of paint, waiting 30 minutes in between each coat. Then set aside to dry completely. This may take up to 2 hours. Place painters tape in a pin-stripe pattern on the terra cotta pots, just below the lip of the pot. Paint your pin stripe in red or blue. If you choose red, your lettering should be blue. If you choose blue, your lettering should be red. You can stencil or free hand your Holiday Message. We chose, “God Bless America.” Let paint dry completely for two hours. Take your largest pot and place an empty, sturdy plastic pot inverted into the center of the large terra cotta pot. Plastic pots should be tall enough to raise the stacked pots at surface level. They should also be wide enough to allow you to plant 6” plants around the plastic pots. To make your planter last from the 4th of July to Christmas, choose hearty perennials, like /geraniums. They last from Spring to Frost. Keep your color choices to a minimum. That way the pot won’t look too busy. If you choose a red plant, accompany that with another red plant of a different texture to vary the look. In our case, we chose Celosias. Place your "draping" plants (plants that grow long) over the sides of the pots so they don't eventually cover the wording on your pots! And plant as you stack so you can make adjustments should you need to. Place the second pot on top of the inverted plastic container and repeat the process to the top pot! Here’s the twist! – On the opposite side of the pots, use red and green and a holiday message like “Peace, Love, Joy.” Just spin the planter around for that particular time of year! You’ll have a holiday planter for year round!
Natural remedies really, truly work. Oatmeal: Oatmeal is so soothing for burned, irritated and itchy skin. Simply toss 1 cup of old-fashioned oatmeal in your blender or processor. Process into a fine powder. Either add ½ a cup to a bath of tepid water, or empty 1 cup into a large square of cheesecloth or muslin – tie into a little bundle by making 2 knots, and run under warm water. You can then use this as a compress on painful areas of sunburn. Apple Cider Vinegar: Apple Cider Vinegar is also soothing and healing for badly sunburned skin: Just add 1 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar to a bath of tepid water. Soak for as long as you can. Baking Soda: Baking Soda is a wonderful remedy because it helps to restore the acid/alkaline balance of your skin. Add 1 cup of baking soda to your bath, and when you get out, instead of toweling off, let the baking soda dry on your skin dressing in loosely-fitting clothes. Aloe Vera: Aloe Vera is the go-to plant for burns. If you are using it from the actual plant, cut the leaf as close to its base as you can, and then slice the leaf open horizontally before squeezing out the fresh gel, which you can apply directly to your skin. You can also pour Aloe Vera juice into an ice cube try, and when your skin has healed from the initial burn (never put ice cubes on a fresh burn or broken skin), you can gently smooth the cubes over the affected area). Do not apply ice directly ever! Ice is a Sunburn Don’t!
