Put on your boxing gloves and show winter who’s boss! Don’t feel like you have to wait until spring to have fun with plants and gardens. Planting a succulent garden is a great way to lessen the effects that we all know this time of year can have on our energy levels. Here are the easy steps to creating a succulent garden followed by steps to propagating succulents.
Planting your garden:
Step 1: Go the your local plant shop and buy some pebbles, potting soil, and succulents (3-5 depending on the size you are going for).
Step 2: Go to a really cool antique store (like Ingather!) to pick up a pretty antique container (ironstone, glass, flow blue, the possibilities are endless really) We recommend something lower and wider, like a bowl to give the succulents room to spread, but I have mine in a sorbet glass which looks really nice also (pictured).
Step 3: Plant it! Put a few rocks in first for drainage (because your container may not be made for planting). Next add your potting soil than your succulents. If you have empty spaces in your garden, you can use little pebbles or sand for filler.
Caring for your garden:
Sunlight: Succulents like lots of filtered sunlight.
Water: Be sure not to over water your garden. Succulents are dormant for the winter and active for the warmer half of the year. Even in their active state, they only need water once a week or when the soil is dried out completely.
Propagating your succulents:
One of the great things about succulents is that they can propagate (re root) through cuttings and leaves. In other words, once you have one little succulent garden, you can continue to make them without ever buying a succulent of the same type! You can either make tons of succulent gardens, which by the way make excellent gifts, OR you can use them for a mixed urn in the summer outdoors!
Steps to propagating:
1. Pull a leaf off the succulent stem (maybe 6 if you’re hoping to get 3 plants, sometimes some don’t make it while others do)
2. Let the leaf dry out for 2 days so it can callous (you don’t want to plant it freshly cut, it will drink too much water and rot)
3. Push your, firm, leaves into a container with soil & water every time the top of the soil dries out (unlike a fully bloomed succulent you want to keep the soil moist).
4. After about 5 or 6 weeks it will begin to root then leaves will grow from the stem.
If you are rooting a full cutting follow the same steps just remove several of the leaves from the bottom of the succulent before drying out and planting it in soil. Thank you for reading! Let me know if you have questions. Lindsey Reis
Commentaires