weekend project: staghorn fern mount

Hello all [four readers]!  You’re probably wondering what I was up to this weekend.  Dying to know!  I get it!

Before I get to the pretty below, it must be noted that the major time-suck this weekend was due to my abrupt realization that we absolutely need to power-wash our concrete patio slabs.  Which we did.  For a number of hours on Saturday.  To not entirely satisfying effect.

Our concrete is the original and it’s looking rough these days.  After a winter under a layer of algae, the concrete in the atrium is now pock-marked with black spots that refuse to be removed.  Now that I have grossed you out, let’s move on!

So:

Yeah!

I FINALLY got around to mounting my staghorn fern.  It’s been growing like crazy, but sadly still in its original green plastic pot from the nursery.  This meant I needed to built a mount for it.  Fun times!

A week or so ago I picked up a scrap of plywood from the hardware store and decided to sacrifice one of our tomato stakes for this project.  After some sawing and drilling, I had a simple mounting board assembled.  Last weekend I picked up a fancy package of sphagnum moss at Paxton Gate (we happened to be in the city, and everything at Paxton Gate is so delightfully weird that I couldn’t resist.)  I later found that a very similar sphagnum moss is available at our local Ace (which I love!) for about half the price.

To mount the fern onto the board, I followed Apartment Therapy’s how-to but was not entirely convinced about having fishing line and a few nails supporting the fern.  After packing the moss and wrapping it with fishing line, I grabbed a square of burlap and stapled a skirt on this guy, to add more support.  It even has a little fringe.  Hey, maybe this fern likes skirts.  And fringes.  Don’t judge.