DIY Artistic & Natural Moss Pole your plants deserve: FULL TUTORIAL

Maybe you want to drink too? Okay good. Oh hi everyone, my name is Irene and welcome to my channel Leafing Around where we talk all about tropical plants and garden. And yes you have spotted that I've made a new purchase. This is my Monstera Aurea and I hope it's going to survive and not die on me like the albo. But anyway this video I'm going to share with you how to make an artisanal pole. So like a moss pole but instead of a regular moss pole, just something that is more artistic. It all started because I have this plant and then I thought it deserved much more than a regular moss pole. A regular moss pole is very useful and this one is very well made. It's very functional but then I just couldn't bear to put it on this. I thought I was gonna say ugly but I don't want to offend a very good functional pole. It's just not quite a match for it. So then I got carried away and started to design my own moss pole and this is literally stuck with a lot of moss all around this pole along with natural ferns and things that I kind of picked up from beside the drain behind my house. Yeah so without further ado let's get started. Okay first of all you need a branch and here I have a branch that has been thoroughly burnt because I picked it up from the roadside again. This was picked up from the piece of land where I think the landowner has chopped off all the trees and then proceeded to burn the remaining branches and so yeah this is how I got this. Now perhaps you do not have burnt branches nearby where you live. You could equally use also regular branches. Just remember that when you do bring them in to clean them out thoroughly and then process them before you use them. By processing them I think what could be good is that if you give them a really good wash, scrub and then proceed to oil them even. For this I feel the charcoal because it's already charcoal I didn't have to process it much further and besides we know that charcoal has been a really good addition for your soil so I like to think that as I insert this into my pot this is also a beneficial thing for my plant and if you look closer the texture here is amazing. It's got like snake-like, alligator-like skin texture to it. Now okay now that we have a branch and oh and if you want to achieve this effect for your branch you could take your regular branch and just burn it just burn it charred and I'm gonna get my husband to do it here that as you could see so if you have a gas off tank and then this device you could proceed to char your own branch. So shoshugiban is a Japanese method of burning the wood for a few purposes. One is helps to preserve make it waterproof. Secondly it's to deter pests because pests apparently don't are not attracted to this after it's been burned and charred and then lastly it gives it a very nice texture when it's burnt it brings out some of the texture and lines that you would otherwise not see if it wasn't burnt. So this is the raw unburnt version this is what it looks like after it's been burnt totally black but this one that I picked up from the roadside somehow it's able to have that texture. I'm not sure how that's achieved but yeah the one that's free from the roadside I think is the best. So what I have here is this branch and then a whole lot of moss sphagnum moss as well as live ones and then random ferns. So let's get started to put some sphagnum and then I kind of just yeah clump them up and then when you feel like you have enough you can start to tie them. So what I have here is kind of like a fishing net it's transparent so just give it a cut and I would tie a knot here and then it's a bit of a no-brainer really you just kind of go around and around and wrap it until your string ends. Just remember to pull it quite tight and when you have reached the end to tie the knot. So we've got the top part down now we tackle the other side and then really just do the same thing have more kind of go over the entire branch for this section so you can imagine if the roots are hanging onto it it could crawl all over. So if you have two person this would be much easier try get a family member to help you. So same thing tie a knot tight secure it. So you see I was struggling a little with getting the thread under so I've decided to innovate my process with the use of some bricks. I think I just hurt my back um so if we could oh my leaves rest it on a couple of bricks then I have a gap in between. Stick them here whoops it's gonna be a messy process so get a friend to help you if you can. So now this part here is completely wrapped with sphagnum and next we are going to stick some live moss on it and you can see it's starting to come together and I'm also gonna put some ferns see this fern that I have so I bought a pot of fern and I think I would take a bit of it out and in fact some of it just fell out whoa hang on ah so this bit just fell out which is perfect I'm gonna put the rest on the floor um ew it's got something disgusting stuck at the bottom let me just give it a good wash hang on I'm bad washing it but I just realized the bit that fell out doesn't have a lot of roots so let me try to grab another piece of it I should have a place to unpot this I'll just do it on the floor I've just brutally removed a chunk of it with good amount of roots so I hope that's not too horrific an experience for the fern um this leaf looks like it's got infection I'll throw it away and then I'm gonna stick the moss on the outside so it secures it just one more piece here let's start to tie some strings around so once again are pretty much the same process just tie it as tight as you can I'm thinking instead of just adding more moss here I'm gonna add this and to give it a bit of a different texture and interest um so let's fasten it with some strings tie it pretty much the same process actually anything you want there just stick it on and then hang it hang on tight with strings and just pull the string really tight oops and hope it doesn't fall off and because I've left a lot a lot of these are uncut let's say so it's very helpful I can then tie it to any of these hanging surplus strings from the previous ties so I will just proceed then to pollen a little bit of moss all over so this is what we have at the moment and I'm thinking I really like to add these ferns they they look really good and I have some in the backyard so so let's go and look for them actually we didn't have to go to the backyard because we found this sad looking fern this is how this was is a variegated Boston fern but then there's this lovely I don't know what this is but this grows profusely in in the wild everywhere so I'm gonna take this fern and put it on my pole now so uh this is the net pot it's growing out of the net pot I'm just gonna try and pull it out tada okay so this looks easy like it could almost just hug this pole so um I'm not sure can we just do that maybe this is a really really weird shape I don't know do I want it to go yeah down okay all right something like that and now we will proceed to um string it ah all right okay good so that's how it is and then we're gonna put stick some moss on it this is a nice huge piece and now we just have to go through it with the strings so this is what it looks like it's kind of like a surprise every time I'm really not sure how it turned out so just random ferns and moss and now we proceed to do the top part so very much like what we've done here pellet with sphagnum string it up oh but because we have a v-shape here so um we could make make more sphagnum moss sit on top of it I'm gonna attempt to put this fern that you see um there that it kind of streaks down and hang down oh I'm gonna give it a little bit of um peat too maybe that'll help and as you can see everything is falling apart oh and then this one I do have more of these ferns so let me attach more of them up there hang on yes a little bit brutal okay I got this bit out I don't know how to position this they're everywhere okay maybe like that maybe I'm gonna cut this bit off because I don't know what to do with it and if everything would stay still while I string it up I'm not sure how to do that let's just plunk in more sphagnum to hold it hold it and don't drop okay this is in the ideal world how they would sit and now I have to get my string you know what I just had this crazy idea I have a begonia here that I have been propagating I think this is the begonia snow cat and I have been propagating it in moss sphagnum moss and then guess what that's a moss and this is a moss and if it can thrive in sphagnum moss I might as well just try stick it on my moss pole so yeah let's let's see let's add a begonia on the moss pole too why not you get the gist we're just gonna go round and round with the string so normally the begonia I do not use sphagnum to plant them but I think it has adapted to sphagnum so just gonna try chance it I think it it should survive here so this is what we have here so far yeah you never know what you're gonna get just up to your creativity and what's on hand okay I'm slightly appalled that this is kind of the front facing but then this bit here isn't you have to turn it around but I might tell myself it's okay if it doesn't have an exact front so you could appreciate it from this angle as well as that angle at the back now being a moss pole I'm not gonna put it in a pot and then as the branch is pretty heavy I would like something heavy also to fill up the pot at the bottom what doesn't break hmm that was a stubborn brick we try a new brick oh yay so yay I've got now bricks oh wait this isn't quite in the middle yet middle put it here just so that it could stand you know right now that it is sort of standing um cool right I'll fill it with parts so I'm thinking some philodendron would be good because they love to climb now I have to think of what what plant I put in here to climb um I have some raffiodora megasperma I think that has been kind of abandoned and uncared for look at that it's so sad it's thriving despite neglect the roots are so healthy with no media almost I think so and then okay let's kind of pour it out so um this is the raffiodora megasperma perhaps and it should have holes like this and because I didn't give it a good climbing pole the leaves became subsequently smaller and smaller and then lost its fenestration okay so this plant if you don't give it a pole it sets off a runner can you see the runner how it has really tiny leaves so a very much overdue um pole that it needs