Quick and Easy Succulent Planter Tutorial

Happy Memorial Day, everyone. Today is a day for remembering our fallen heroes; those who fell on the battlefield, and those who fell after returning home from service. I have nothing but respect for those who fought and currently fight for our country. I send blessings and prayers to all of those who have lost a loved one in the armed forces! Please take some time away from your BBQs and gardening to have a moment of silence for those who gave their lives for ours.

Today I bring you a quick and easy tutorial for making a succulent planter! Succulents are all the rage right now in gardening and home decor and I just can’t get enough of them! Their gorgeous colors, waxy finishes and fun shapes are just too great to not include in any of your planters this season. The great thing about succulents is that they don’t require a ton of intensive care, which is great for this girl since I usually forget to water things (sorry, cilantro…) and is perfect for those who want a bit of greenery with all the fuss. Just a warning, cats will eat succulents! They aren’t necessarily harmful to them, but a few days after planting this and putting it on my kitchen table, my cats had nibbled off significant portions of each of the succulents. Argh! Now it (the planter, not the cat) has to sit outside to avoid any more carnage. Anyway.

Without further ado, I bring you my succulent planter tutorial. Let’s get started!

Succulent Planter Materials

– Bowl or planter

(Note: preferably you want a planter with a drainage hole in the bottom, but I had a unique shaped glass bowl that I wanted to use for this project. Succulents don’t require too much water, so not having a drainage hole in this case should be okay.)

– Rocks

– Potting Soil

– Gardening gloves

– Succulent plants of various varieties, sizes, and colors

– Optional: potting fabric; a lot of tutorials use a layer of potting fabric between the rocks and the soil to aid in drainage, but I didn’t have any on hand. My succulent planter has been going on several weeks and has done just fine without it!

Step 1

Put some rocks in the bottom of your container to help with drainage if you have a drainage hole and to prevent mold if you don’t have a drainage hole. I just took some gravel from the path in my backyard!

Step 2

Put a fair layer of potting soil into your container. Many other tutorials also add a mixture of finer gravel to the dirt, but I didn’t have any on hand, so regular soil it is! I used Miracle Grow’s Moisture Control Potting Mix which helps prevent over or under watering, which is great for this project.

Step 3

Take your biggest succulent plant and remove it from it’s plastic pot. Mush up the roots a little bit and plant it in a corner of your container. Bigger succulents look better visually when they are planted to the side of your container to add interest and asymmetry.

Step 4

Take the rest of your various-sized succulents and plant them around the bigger one, mushing up the roots a little bit (but not too much otherwise they fall apart!) and secure them in the dirt. Add a little more potting soil around your succulents once you have the planted. You can optionally top your succulents with decorative sand or rocks for a more desert look. I wanted to keep it simple, so I just left the dirt exposed.

And here is the finished product!

I’m absolutely in love with the bright green and faint purple colors and I think they look great in the unique glass bowl I used. Since it can’t sit on my kitchen table (darn cats), it will look great as an outdoor planter on our patio table!

Do you have a green thumb? What are some of your favorite plants to grow and which ones are good for garden-inept people, like myself? Help!