Have you ever heard of an giant african slug? I’m not sure if I should tell you to google it…. or if I should tell you to never, ever google them…. but man, they are interesting little (large) creatures. I’ve never seen one alive in the wild— not a large one anyway, but holy cow, some of those guys are HUGE. There’s a lake not far from us that basically has piles and piles (depending on the day/weather) of these empty shells. I’m guessing the birds (or dare I say, gators?) eat all the slugs… because like I said, I’ve never seen one.
our garden! We came home, scrubbed them down a bit, and secured the air plant in the shells with a tiny bit of dirt. &Bingo, new fun friends. I’m probably going to string some of them up somewhere, but for now, they’re great scattered across our shelves.
I’m not sure if you guys are lucky/unlucky like us south floridians to have the biggest slugs EVER, but even if not, I totally recommend getting out there, searching trees and bushes for air plants and getting creative with planters. It would have been fun to paint these too.. but maybe that will be another project for a rainy day 🙂 Marlowe loved it. And I love that the medusa air plant actually looks like a bit like a slug, but in a much cuter way 😉
PS. Thank you guys SO much for all your support and kind words about The Thirty Day Cleanse. Today is the last day to receive it for the sale price, if you’re interested! Your support seriously means the world to me. I’m filled with ideas for another book, I can’t wait. Thank you thank you!
17 Comments
these are awesome!
Ohhhh my gosh. Why did I google? (And I'm moving to FL this summer. Uhhhh… first I find out alligators can climb fences, and now there are giant slugs.)
Haven't yet googled them, and actually think I won't 😉
This is so cool! What a beautiful idea.
The Rambling Fangirl
Oh man, that title. I was like, ok, she's gone too far now. Verrry funny dude.
PS, as my own lil one gets older, I'm realizing how totally well behaved Marlowe is! Maybe you should write a post on how to raise a kid like that!
haha. Strict rules and lots of fun 🙂
Oh my goodness, how fun! Did you find them at Dreher Park? I've never even noticed.
Yes! Dreher! I've noticed them more after wet and dreary days— on the north side of the south end park— if that makes any sense!
Love your garden posts!! Very helpful. I'm following your raised bed template for an office garden. Beautiful air plants. But jussst in case you didn't know, I think air plants are endangered and it may be illegal to harvest wild ones in South Florida. I might be wrong, the rules may have changed.
oh man! Are you sure? I'm going to have to look into that. I'm not at all saying you're wrong– but there are literally hundreds filling some the bushes around here! Good to know!
Looks like some airplant species are endangered and some aren't, so if you have that much of an abundance around you, you probably took safe ones… and if that's the case, I apologize for the false alarm!
This is a useful link for FL's native bromeliads.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw205
Some are endangered but I do know that my grandfather lives in Cocoa, FL and they have thousands, maybe even millions of little Spanish moss plants that people use as air plants. They are invasive so if that's what you're picking up from nature, I'm sure nobody minds at all!
This is a helpful link for info about FL's native bromeliads:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw205
It looks like some are endangered but my grandfather lives in Cocoa, FL and they have thousands, if not millions, of little Spanish moss plants that people use as air plants.
They are invasive so if that's what you're taking from nature, I'm sure nobody minds at all!
This is fantastic idea, Drea! Fun, creative way of reusing leftovers 😉
We are involved in two projects at the moment and Nadia loves every minute of it although I can't say I'm enjoying the state our house becomes afterwards 😉
Have a great day! xxx
Thats amazing! I never saw one if these empty! But its a great idea!
Love from Germany and the fatcatconnection
http://lasagnolove.blogspot.de/2014/03/bambi-meets-bambi.html
of course i had to google them…the first thing my son said was, "awwww, we have to get a pet slug!" thankfully, no giant slugs here!
What a wonderful idea. You're right though, those things are massive, yikes. They do look lovely with the plants in them. I used to have an air plant in a shell and it was fascinating to see it growing without any soil. I've got one in a pot now with a little soil – no giant snails round here, unfortunately.