String gardens or kokedama- Japanese moss balls- (http://www.stringgardens.com/) have taken over the design world. Kokedama are essentially plants that are contained within a ball of peat moss and bonsai soil, and then wrapped in twine and moss.   They look fairly complicated, but like most plant projects (think terrariums) there construction is not too involved, albeit a little messy.  You can create little plant worlds and a brand new look for any room in your home.  They just need to be hung in shadier spots (not in direct sunlight) and upkeep is simple. Spray your kokedama with a spray mist bottle in the morning once a day. You

To create your own hanging kokedama garden, you’ll use a 7:3 ratio combination of peat soil and akedama, or bonsai soil.  Most of the “ingredients” will be available at any local nursery or home improvement store. 

What You’ll Need:

A tiny plant; moss can’t stand direct sunlight, so choose a shadow-loving plant. You can use anything from wheat grass to hydrangeas to kumquat trees.

Peat soil and akedama, or bonsai soil

Dry sphagnum moss, which you can find at any nursery

Regular Moss, which you can buy at any garden or hardware store

Scissors

Cotton thread

Packing string like twine or hemp

Gloves. They say it gets messy. So you might want to throw down an old sheet while you’re at it if you don’t have outdoor working space.

A jar of water

Spray mist bottle

For a great picture play-by-play hop over the Design Sponge (which is an amazing and unique resource for all you DIY fanatics) and follow their instructions.

-Arianna Schioldager