WithSummer quickly winding down, I’m continuingmy end-of-the season gardening theme with another way to bring lovely greenery indoors.
Succulent plantings not only make for a beautiful presentation, they’re also among the easiest plants to maintain.
Throughout this post, I’ll share how to create your own small-scale, succulentgarden that you’ll be able to enjoy for many seasons to come.
Succulents are also called fat plants thanks to the large amount of water they retain in their leaves and stems.
While they are easy to grow, they do require a few special planting materials to ensure they thrive in your home.
When building an indoorsucculent garden, start with a large pot andplace a layer of small pebbles in the bottom of the container to helpwith water drainage.
Next, add a layer of activated charcoal evenly over the pebbles that were just placed.
Activated charcoal helps with air filtration and can be found at most pet stores in the aquarium section.
Activated charcoal isalso referred to asactivated filter carbon.
Finally, add your succulent soil which can be purchased pre-packaged at most nurseries or garden shops and should be labeled as such.
If you can’t find pre-mixed succulent soil, you canmake your ownby combining 2-parts regular potting soil with 1-part sand (do not use beach sand).
The type of sand needed for this combination can also be foundat manygarden shops and is generally sold by the bag.
After pouring the charcoal layer, spread the succulent soil mix evenly for a final layer in preparation for theplants.
There are many beautiful succulent choices available in different colors, shapes and textures.
You can find succulents at mostgarden shops, nurseries and even in many home improvement stores in the gardening section.
Allow me to sharea little more about the succulents I selected for mysmall containergarden.
Hen and Chicks are very easy to grow and are available in multiple colors, shapes, sizes and textures.
They grow in separate little family-like clumps as you can see in the photo below and will spread fairly quickly in your container once planted.
One look at thissucculentand you know right away why it’s called a Jelly Bean. In some circles, it’s called Pork and Beans.
Different seasons prompt this plant to display different appearances.
They may start out green in the Summer but by Fall withexposure to sun, thebean-shaped leavesturn burnt orange or red. In theSpring you can look forward tothese bean-shapes turning yellow.
While the Desert Rose is native to tropical regions, itstill thrives as a succulent house plant in most areas.
This plant stores its water in a distinct, bulb-like stem. Thebright green leaves of the Desert Rose eventually give way to beautiful pink, white or red flowers.
WARNING: The Desert Rose produces a sap which can be poisonousso keep children and pets away from this succulent.
The Jade succulent is well known for its soft and fleshy leaves which also retain plenty of water.
In fact, Jade leavesoften become so water-logged, its leaves can often break under the weight.
It’s still a beautiful, thick plant and one of the easiest to grow and share via cuttings.
Aloe Vera is known for its natural, potent moisturizing properties including essential vitamins, amino acids and minerals just to name a few of the more than 75 known nutrients.
The elongated leaves make it easily recognizable. Aloe Vera isconsidered one of the most popular medicinal plants known to man and is often used to rejuvenate and hydrate human skin.
As with most plants that have started outin small pots, the roots of succulents may be a bit compacted when removed from its original container.
Gently pull on the root ball to separate the rootsbefore planting.
This garden is starting to look pretty good.
However, there’s one more thing you can add to finish off this pleasing presentation of succulents.
River rocks are an inexpensive, decorative element that can give any garden amore earthy feel.
I picked up a small bag containing about 100-assorted river rocks for just $5 at a local nursery.
River rocks have a soft, smoothsurfacethanks to thenatural force ofriver water rushing over them over time.
River rocksadd a nice decorative element to the succulent garden.
The rocks also help separate the individual plants so they aremoreclearly defined within the container.
Meanwhile, succulent gardens can be grown in just about any container as long as the nourishing layers are properly stacked.
If you’d like to go smaller than a garden pot, considerthe ever-trusty and versatile Mason jar.
(NOTE: I have a few Mason Jar projects in my blog pipeline and I’ll share thoselater in upcoming posts.)
To make Mason jar gardens, simply repeat the layering stepsbut on a smaller scale.
Start with pebbles, add activating charcoal, succulent soil and then put the plant in place.
Carefully screw thebandback onto the jar without the lid.Make sure you don’t damage the succulent during this step.
Nowyou have abeautiful, small succulent planting to present as a gift to garden lovers.
This would also make anicehousewarming gift.
NOTE: My 13-year old daughter (a plant lover) has these three succulent jar gardens on a shelf in her room and they look great. They also give her something to take care of (since I’ve nixed the repeated pet dog recommendations).
There are so manyinteresting succulents that can be used for a small-scale garden project like this.
Stop by your local nursery, garden shop or home improvement greenhouse to browse the colorful options.
Here’s one more lookat a few of thetypes of succulents I used for mycontainer garden.
I’m really pleased with how this (first-time) garden project turned out.
So, have you ever planted a succulent garden?
If so, what are your favorite succulent plants? If not, I hope you’re inspired to give it a try.
