Chic Crafty Chick: Fern Care

Summer is officially here and where I live that means ferns on your front porch. I have to admit that I love having them hanging on my front porch. To me ferns are welcoming, like little green smiles hanging up waving at you to come on up on the porch. I know every time I go out or I pull up to my house, my ferns make me smile.

I've had an opportunity to watch some FoodNetwork shows this week and I've caught a couple of Paula Deen's shows. If you watch her show, when she cooks in her kitchen in Savannah, Georgia she has a large brick fireplace that is right behind her. And in the fireplace they've placed a large fern. I love that look. It is amazing how a plant as simple as a fern came be such a decorative item. That leafy, pop of green can add so much to a space.

Today I want to share a tip about caring for ferns that has made things so much easier for me. I bought my ferns last month and up until this week our temperatures have been a bit mild since the humidity has been down. Now the humidity is up and the heat too. Yesterday, some of the areas around me had a heat index of over 100 degrees. When the weather gets that hot it can be hard to get motivated to water plants. Even at eight or nine or ten o'clock at night it can feel like a sauna outside.

My mother in law shared that her brother shared a great watering tip with her for keeping his ferns lush and green even at the height of the heat and humidity we get here. His tip is to take your fern and submerge it in a 5 gallon bucket. Let the fern soak for a while and then take it up and hang it. This way the roots get a good drink. The great thing about this is you don't have to lug a heavy hose and stand there and watch the water go through. You also don't loose as much water this way. The thing that has been great for me has been that I can put my ferns in the bucket and go off and get other projects done and then come back and switch them out. I'm all about multitasking, so this works great for me. Some of the ferns I purchased were on sale and they were stressed from not being watered properly at the store. They have really perked up since I've started the new watering process.

Here is a picture of one of my ferns enjoying their morning drink. My porch gets afternoon sun, so having the ferns soak either in the morning or after the sun goes down works best for me.