Garden Fail: Mini Succulent Garden

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I can’t decide if the cutesy DIY succulent garden I attempted to create this week should be included in some sort of garden fail photo collection. You know, like one of those websites loaded with Pinterest fails or cake wrecks, or basically good intentions gone wrong?

I have always been drawn to the booth that’s in every home and garden show in Any Town, USA. The iron and steel garden ornaments. I always carefully scan every hanging orb, bug sculpture, trellis, dragonfly made of forks, you name it. Everything: searching for that special piece for my garden.

Rarely do I buy anything. However, when I saw this hanging sunflower ornament hanging in a vendor’s booth at the Indiana Home and Garden Show this year, I thought it would be a cute addition to my bird feeding station. Plus it was only $12.

Turns out, like so many cute things in life, this birdfeeder was more form than function. It is awkward to fill and the birds seem to have a hard time getting the seeds through the holes. So I decided to plant succulents in it.

Repurposing the Bird Feeder for a Succulent Garden

My first mistake was underestimating the size of the hole I needed to accommodate the tiny succulents I purchased in 4-packs. So out came the wire cutters to remove small sections of the wire mesh panels. Once I pushed five of the plants through one side, I realized it was almost impossible to cover the potting soil with the sphagnum moss I thought would make a nice liner for the basket.

So, I just crammed some in there. Then I added a couple handfuls of potting soil and crammed some more moss on top. I was fully resigned to the fact that I had given up on planting both sides of the sunflower.

I watered the soil and moss thoroughly and decided to let the piece lie flat for a few days. Especially since I decided it would be a good idea to stuff in a couple of unrooted stems from my Jade plant. This will let the plants establish themselves a little. Then they’ll less likely to fall out when I hang up my little succulent garden.

I feel like, if everything stays where I put it and if I don’t forget to water, the end result will get better with time as the plants grow and fill in a little. But still, this is not quite the adorable little succulent garden I pictured.

Sigh.

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