Creating A Succulent Container.

I'm going to visit some friends next week at their lake house and was wondering what to give them as a hospitality gift.  I had given plants before, but most plants need to much care to be left at a second home that may not be occupied for weeks at a time.  I had created a few succulent containers for my porch this screen and love the way they look and the low maintenance.  What a great idea for my gift! Its so easy to put it together and I have a few suggestions for making it more wallet friendly.

First, you can get so many different succulents at you local Home Depot or Lowes.  I decided to use Lowes since that is where I saw them first.  You can get them sold as single plants or as multiple packets.  I bout a few that were sold in sets of 4 and one single succulent, that was a little larger.  The packets of 4 were around five dollars and the single plant was around three dollars.  I bought two sets of four and one single plant. 

 I had purchased this lower edged blue bowl at Hobby Lobby recently.  Most of their summer items are really marked down now.  Some of the other containers that are shown up above I had bought from either Homegoods, T.J. Maxx, or Marshalls and I have seen some really pretty containers at Home Depot.  I usually don't spend over ten dollars unless it really speaks to me. Please check to see if your succulents are for high light or low low and you can check out this article at Davesgarden.com for information on planting and care.

I bought soil used for cactus, as succulents are in the cactus family.  My bowl did not have a drainage hole which does not bother me since I am going to add a layer of rock for drainage and you won't want to water these too much.  You can get great decorative rocks or stones so cheaply at you dollar store in the floral area.  

First put down your layer of stones.  Then add a layer of soil about 1" deep.  Set the plants in where you want them.  Feel free to move them around until you get a good feel of how they look.  Don't forget how the plants will grow, so keep the larger plants in an area that won't take over the smaller ones and be sure to place the succulents that tend to cascade planted near the edge of your container.

Add additional soil a little at a time to fill in around your plants.  Once you have it all together, you will need to add some water. 

I used a sprayer to first add water so that I didn't add too much and so I could spray away the soil that had fallen into the plants.  You don't want to water these plants too much.  I met a guy last weekend who sold some beautiful succulents and he advised me to only water when the succulents lost their shine.  I sometimes miss that but you can check the site mentioned above for more about care. 

Here are some that are more established.  An easy way to add some green to your home.