u/LavanderMushroomMoon

A pine tree dropped mutliple branches during a storm and I collected them when cleaning the yard. I want to make pine needle baskets but am recieving a lot of mixed information.

Most of what's out there is based on dry needles collected from the ground. There is some about weaving green needles but I am also seeing that this can lead to warping.

Some sources are telling me I can dry the needles in the oven but advise to do so until they are brittle, which other sources say is bad for weaving, I want soft needles.

What do I do?

I got this Monstera plant over a year ago, it wouldn't grow upwards, just in a vine. I tried to encourage it to grow up with a tomato cage and by tying it to sticks. the base is thicker but the vine was still really flimsy.

I believe this is caused because the "indirect light" I'm giving it is closer to shade and not enough.

There is a smaller verison of the plant in the pot that appeared around 6 months after the original plant, I think it is attached to the original but not certain, that one seems to be growing fine.

I recently watched a video on cutting back and propagating monsteras and thought I'd give it a go, maybe if I cut it back the loss of weight would allow it to grow upwards.

What are your thoughts of doing this and moving it to a more light sourced area?