Native Garden After 1 Year | favorite houseplants, my aquarium, and sourcing tips

Hello. Today it's about plants again, so more about the garden. M, a few things for room plants. Lately I have been very focused on interior design. This is because my two main areas of interest are interior design and plants. Sometimes I'm more interested in one thing than the other, and that is definitely reflected in my channel again. M, yes, I'm sorry for everyone who is mainly here because of the plants. M, of course I haven't forgotten you. The first thing I want to share with you is the local garden. Because it's been a year since we put it up. And that's crazy, because it doesn't even feel that long. But it's been a whole year. I want to give you an update, show you how it has progressed and also share a few before and after photos. And I wasn't even aware of how much it had changed and grown until I looked at old photos of it. That's why I'm going to show you some pictures so you can see what it looked like when we planted it for the first time. It's really full. Yesterday I tidied up so much to prepare for it. The tree, the mimosa tree that stands above me, I've talked about it so many times. But it's just such a mess and so many leaves fall down everywhere and I really have to come after it. Otherwise the garden just doesn't look nice and tidy. This whole area was covered with leaves because I ignored it for a while. I wanted to go through a few successes, a few plants that have developed really well, and then also the plants that didn't do so well and then the plants that failed completely. Chris is also helping us right now while filming. Hello, Chris. The huckra bed has really become full and has developed well in this area because it is very shady. I mean, most of the garden is pretty shady because we have all these trees and the ferns grow really well here. We have a huge chain flag behind us, and that's an Australian tree flag that I used later. Not a native plant, but I love her look and I like to see her in Los Angeles. One of the problems I had in this garden were these tadpoles that constantly ate all the huckra and the colibri sage. You could see small holes in the leaves. So they just decimated and de-leaved all the plants. So I thought about how I could get rid of the tadpoles without being dangerous to pollinators. Since this is a native garden and it is about flowers, I want them to be harmless to the animal world. And while I was thinking about it, an owl came out and ate one of the tadpoles. So I just saw how nature fulfilled its work right in front of my eyes. And then I saw more and more owls come over time. And now we don't have any more tadpoles. I don't know if the owls ate them all or if it's just not the right season for the tadpoles, but now they're gone. So I didn't even have to do anything. The huckra flags are a complete success in the garden and we have also distributed a few huckra in this area. And now we move on to the section that has developed quite well, but is not outstanding. In this area there are all these grasses. Uh, that's a field saw. And with this grass I'm not sure what it is. The team from Hardy Californians will come by this week to see how the garden is doing. So I'm going to ask them what they think about it. But it looks really nice. And I love it when grasses do something like that, where they get really long and then tip over and create such a meadow-like appearance. So this one is really good and looks nice. The field saw with its bushes has a lot of yellowed and dead leaves. But it fills up much more than before. Before there were only dead leaves. Here we have twigs and this one has also developed quite well. Um, yes, all grasses have developed well. But not outstanding. Maybe it will take a while for grasses to establish themselves. Now let's get to some flops and mistakes of the garden. The first is this Douglas Iris. And you might think, Benji, where is the Douglas Iris? Well, she's dead. Uh, they're all dead. They're all gone. I don't know if they might be in a winter rest. Because I think sword lilies are plants that can enter a winter rest. I'm not really sure. I have to investigate that even more closely. But I'm pretty sure they're all dead. And maybe they just didn't feel comfortable in this place. Um, we had a lot of rain for a while. So I think they could be rotting. Like this one here. She was completely dead. So I just pulled her out and she just let herself out. So I think she's rotted. And there is no Douglas Iris left. It's almost like a tombstone. Because here is one, over there one. And there is no Douglas Iris here. That's all the pigeon swallow. I'll just go through. This area had many problems. First, the scarecrows attacked him. And then there is just so much flour dew here. When I treated him, he disappeared. But after a while he came back. So I think about swapping the pigeon swallow. He smells very good and has flowers that attract many wild animals. But here he just doesn't seem to thrive so well. When Hearty Californians comes, I'll hear what you think about it. And maybe we'll swap them. Or you give me a few tips on how I can take better care of him. The best thing about a local garden is to observe all the wild animals that interact with it. Like in spring, when we have all the flowers, there are so many birds and bees and colibris and butterflies and eidex and so on, that interact with the garden. And it's really nice to be able to see that from the kitchen. Oh, look. You can see Winnie from here now. Now I have to go in and make myself a coffee, because I haven't gotten any caffeine yet. And it's still pretty early. Winnie, you shouldn't be up here. A few months ago we got an espresso machine and I started making my own ice drinks. Especially ice lattes. So different variations of lattes. And lately I've become a big fan of Hojicha Lattes. It tastes like matcha, but not as intense as matcha. I'm not a fan of matcha, but I like Hojicha a lot. Since I started making my own latte at home, I don't go to cafes that often anymore. But without a straw, I feel like my mind doesn't tick so much anymore that I think it would be a coffee latte. That brings me to talking about the sponsor of this video, namely Renovo. Renovo produces completely compostable straws made from sugarcane fibers, a by-product of the sugarcane industry. And because they are completely plant-based, I can simply throw them into my compost container. These straws are completely free of plastic and thus a safe choice for the environment and your health. They are heat-resistant up to 90 degrees Celsius, so they don't melt in your drink. I've had this experience when I stir a hot drink and my straw dissolves. Renova is a brand from Taiwan and won the Taiwan Excellence Award in 2020. Since 1993, Taiwan has been awarding Taiwan's highest-quality brands for research and development, design, quality and marketing. My favorite aspect of these straws is their quality and that they don't get muddy and disgusting in your mouth. I'm really not a fan of paper straws because they feel so comfortable. I just don't like having a paper straw in my mouth. To buy your own straws, click on the link in my description. Many thanks to Renovo for sponsoring this video. Here is the shady garden area that I created some time ago. This is where these beautiful ferns grow and these shade-tolerant plants. Most of this garden is, except for a few places, covered by trees, which is nice, but limits the variety of plants that we can grow because we just have so much shade. I won't change anything about the planting. I think everything looks really good. I noticed that the ferns in this garden just grow much better than all the other plants. I think that when gardening, at least from my very limited experience so far, you just have to find out which plants you like, e.g. in view of the garden floor or the way you care for the plants. And if something doesn't work, you can remove it and replace it with something that suits you better. This is not really a limitation. It's just bricks that are laid around. I found this bed frame made of copper. I think it will work much better, look neater, and still fit the versatile overall picture of the rest of the garden and the house. I've never done anything like this before, but I can't imagine that it will be too difficult. Here's a little idea of what it's going to look like. It also somehow fits this. Don't ask me what that is. I'm not sure. These are just rusted metal parts in this garden. I'll show you. There's this gear. Look at that. What is that? It's amazing what you can find in an old garden. Looks like you put the ends together. I start by removing all the bricks on the edge. And these gloves are my absolute favorite gloves. They are from a Japanese garden brand called Niwoki. I can really recommend them. They are not expensive and you can still feel something. But they offer good protection. Okay. Looks like the ground is pretty healthy. That's good. Okay, I like that. It has a not too exaggerated roundness, but still feels somehow organic. And the material really feels original from the garden, which is also very nice, because it's brand new, but it really looks ed. And normally I don't like this kind of artificial patina, but this one actually looks pretty good. If you compare it to the other rusty metals here, they look very similar. Okay, this little project has really brought a lot to this garden bed. It looks much neater now. And it also fits the aesthetics of the garden. Success! In this area we used to have a huge cupboard on which my aquarium stood, but the cupboard was just too big and it was always really messy, dirty and dusty underneath and behind, because we couldn't get to the cleaning. Yes, we don't have that anymore. Of course I still have the aquarium. It only stands on another stand, which we will bring here soon. But it's nice that there is so much more space here. But I wanted to talk quickly about my plantain, because it's getting too big. I don't really know what to do with it, because it grows out of this area. You can really see how big they have become. And with this one, the leaves are too heavy and they bend down. So I tied it with a cord and it just doesn't stick out that far. I think it's because I don't have enough light. Directly above the plant. It's rather oblique. So the leaves grow towards the light and not upwards. Here is my aquarium. At the moment it is in the dining room, because I had to move it to get rid of the other cupboard. But it looks pretty good. I still have a few hair algae. But I think a big factor for my hair algae was that the aquarium stood at the window and got a lot of sun. We put it back in this place, but it won't stand with its back to the window anymore. And I don't really like the aquarium where we want to put it. But we don't have any other place for it. So it comes there. Because at the moment I like the open entrance area very much. So I have to empty the aquarium as far as possible and then we can put it in the other place. Let's see. I can take out more. I pushed the filter from this side to the other side so that the hose can be hidden. Because before it was exposed on this side and looked a bit messy. Now it's on the other side and yes, the aquarium looks really nice and well maintained here. My little shrimp are flying around because they always swim around when the water is changed. People also call them garneal zoos. I wanted to introduce you to a few plants that I haven't talked about on my channel yet. The first is this Australian botanical tree. It is very popular in Los Angeles. It is, so to speak, the trend plant of LA, which is kind of funny. You see them all the time in fancy shops or in the houses of celebrities and so on. But it is really beautiful, very sculptural, which people really like. I'm not sure if I want to see this train. Chris and I are just testing it to see how we like it. But it is really beautiful with the pot and the roots that can be seen above. This has been out here for about six or five months. It has really grown well and I really wanted to get it in because I wanted to see it in the house every day. This is not necessarily the best location for you in terms of light conditions, but you can survive, but they don't grow as well with less light as I saw online. It also has a curve where it bends in this direction, so that it forms a nice frame around the sofa. It also goes well with the sofa. The aesthetics of this tree with the pot and the sofa just go so well together. Next I wanted to show you this plant. This is my filigree Fired Bird. I got it in 2020. I didn't even know how rare it was and it was sold for about $100. I think in a local plant Facebook group. It grows so well. It's been in the same pot for a long time and the new leaves come out red and then turn green. It once had a panacea, but it's gone. But I think it's still a very nice plant. I rarely see them online, but when I see them for sale, they cost thousands of dollars. That's crazy, because I bought them without knowing that they are super rare or worth something. I just thought it was pretty and had never heard of it. So I thought, yes, I like this plant. I wanted to talk about this plant, because every time I post it on Instagram, I get so many questions about it. I'm going to remove it now so we can see it better. But also ignore the hanging plants up here, because today they have to be watered. I just haven't gotten to it yet. I bought this plant as a China Doll Bonsai on Etsy. But I'm not sure if it's a China Doll, because the leaf shape looks completely different. I would like to share a tip with you that not many people talk about and that I haven't talked about myself yet. If you simply come across sculptural, cool-looking room plants, you can buy bonsai plants online. There are a lot of tropical bonsai that you can use as room plants. You shouldn't use typical bonsai leaves like maple or pine. They don't grow well indoors. But there are also a lot of tropical bonsai that you can use. Fusilli Bonsai are the most popular that I know. But if you are looking for tropical, always green bonsai trees for the interior, you will find all kinds. If you go to Etsy and look for bonsai trees for the interior, you will also find a number of different species. And some people also produce bonsai plants that you wouldn't normally expect. You can, for example, buy a Sanado as a bonsai or a money tree. These plants are usually grown for about five years before they are sold. So they already have a really cool shape and look. However, if you buy a bonsai plant, it will be more expensive. You can probably expect more than $100 for a plant. However, if you save some money and don't want to buy a already wired and grown plant, you can buy a pre-bonsai plant. This is a plant where only the stem and the old have grown out and which has not yet been wired and used as a bonsai. So this plant is much cheaper, but still gets the aged growth that you want. This is a plant that I bought as a bonsai. When I got it, the leaves were much smaller and resembled a bonsai. They fell off because of the transport, so I cut them all off. And then I planted them in a pot with a mixture of bonsai soil and normal flower soil. So I don't have to water them so often. I think that's why she got such large leaves because of the fertilizer in the flower soil. Every time I post this plant on Instagram, I am asked so often what it is and I answer because it is so beautiful how the leaves and branches just hang down. That looks fantastic. When I got it, it didn't look like that at all. But after a while, I don't know how long it's been, maybe five or six months, it grew like this. So this is one of the bonsai plants I have. And I have another one that I'm going to show you. This is my other one. This is a Tiger Barkfoot. I'm planting it outside right now because I don't have any space inside at the moment. She's just losing all her old leaves, but at the moment new ones are growing. And I got it for about $30 at Etsy. It just has a really cool shape. So yes, I think that's a little tip to get cool, sculptural plants without having to look for them in the garden or have to grow them yourself for a long time, which I also do. But sometimes I just want to have a simple way to have a cool-looking plant, you know? Okay, I think this is the last video that I'm going to post until the new year. I'm just going to enjoy the holidays, enjoy the festivities and spend time with the family. Family and friends. So yes, see you in the new year. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas time and goodbye!