Living chair

Sorry for disappearing. I know it was unannounced but life has been weird of late. I will have first of the month garden pictures up probably tomorrow. Oh to have the world be normal.

I wanted to tell you about something we are trying this year. We had this metal patio chair. It was a great chair, until the day I sat in it and the springs gave out which sent me tumbling into the house. I had gone completely over backwards and had a splitting headache to thank for it. The chair was in great condition aside from this fatal flaw, so I wasn't ready to just pitch it. All last summer we kept putting it in corners and telling people not to sit in it, unsure what to do with it. We did notice it held a pot fairly nicely.

A dead patio chair

This spring, I was really ready to just pitch it. Pooka wanted to reuse it, so the idea of a "living chair" was born. Daddy took the chair into the garage and cut out a hole in the seat of the chair. Now we did measure the pot I had found for the chair first and cut it to fit.

Looks like the pot fits

Next, Pooka and I went and got a mint plant. We figured we would use their sprawling tendancies to our advantage. In this case we used Chocolate Mint. Pooka said it smelled nice and was curious to try it. Of both my kids, this one has the sweet tooth. She loves just pulling leaves off it.

Chocolate mint anyone

Pooka planted the mint in the designated pot. She loved the idea of a living chair she could eat. In fact, it was a couple of days between parts of it, and she was asking daily if we could finish it (if not hourly).

Planting mint

We placed the chair in the corner we planed to leave it in. Then we took the rope that came with the pot (it was designed to be a hanging pot) and wove the rope into the chair. The chair's diamond patter gave us the ablitity to weave the rope in without having to use fasteners

Installing the rope

We weaved the rope into the chair for all three supports. The resulting hanger gave the bottom a nice support so all the weight wasn't on the lip of the pot.

Finished supports

Lastly, we set the pot into the chair and walked away. Now I will admit this first attempt seen below died because I tried to cram too much into the pot. Since then, we went back to just a chocolate mint and the plant is doing much better.  We also moved the chair a bit further into the shade and it seems to be helping as well. This picture was actually taken earlier this spring, but I promise I will update you soon on how the living chair has progressed.

beginings of a living chair