Happy Belated Earth Day (Part 1): Go Green!

You would think that, working across the hall from a Nursery School class, I would have known it was Earth Day last week. Whoops. Better late than never, right? No reason we can’t celebrate now! In honor of Earth Day, we’ve green-ified our house by bringing some of the outside in.

For awhile, I’ve been hankering to buy some ferns and other greenery for inside, as it seems to liven up a room and can also help to freshen the air! Bonus: We wanted to start bringing some green hues into the family room, so this turned out to be a perfect place to start. However, we weren’t really interested in spending a fortune to do this (surprise, surprise), so we kept putting it off. That is, until Produce Junction got the better of us last week… here are some of our finds (each under $5, so if you’re in the mood for some green without spending a whole lot of green, you’re in luck!):

Our coffee table friend (it’s tag says it’s called Warneckii Dracaena) rings in at $3.50: I love the multi-tone beauty of this one. As we are trying to incorporate some greens into the room, this plant gives us permission to use a whole host of shades and I’m thinking it will go a long way in tying them together.Armchair buddy (it did not come with an ID tag and I know I should know what type of plant this is… but I don’t), also $3.50:

My favorite part about this guy is that he’s still so young! Just check out these baby blooms, ready to grow into full-sized leaves:If you’re wondering what he’s standing on, well, let’s just say it’s a makeshift plant stand. Originally, he was sitting on the floor, but I didn’t like the idea of a possibly wet-bottomed plant directly on the carpet. We had this turquoise glassed piece, so I flipped it upside down and used it to house our new green friend until we can find the real deal. Actually, the colors look great together, so it might become a long-term fix…

And, a few smaller cuties (again, forgive me for not knowing their names- if you do, leave a comment!) that we snagged for $1 a piece. Can’t beat that! The first lives in our bathroom. Let me refresh your mind about what used to be there:

And since we’ve “gone green”:Another has a home on an end table in the family room:

And finally, we picked up a few green-with-hints-of-pink-and-red to keep things interesting. Here’s one on the desk in the Spare:

This ended up working out great, as we have pops of coral-y pink in this room anyway! And those boxes it’s sitting on? Those are the start of a fun, office “spruce-up” coming your way soon… stay tuned for the details!

I think that about wraps up our tour of the greens goods. If you’re looking to get a few of your own, we highly recommend Produce Junction (or another fruits/veggies/plants/nursery in your area if you don’t have one nearby) as opposed to the grocery store. In our hunt, we found that the prices were remarkably cheaper at PJ than our local Giant, Wegmans, or what have you. In total, we spent:

$7.00 ($3.50 for each of the bigger plants) + $4.00 ($1 for each of the smaller plants)= just $11 for a greener, fresher home! Gotta love getting the green without dishing out tons of (the other) green.

Got any house plants or ferns of your own? We’d love to hear what has worked for you! Or maybe you know the names of some of our new planty friends… do tell! Happy Belated Earth Day!

-Leslie