Hi all you succulent lovers and gardeners out there! I thought I would show you step by step how I make one of my succulent strawberry pots. The one above I put together a year or so ago and it is already established. Today it is even bigger with a lot more growth. So let's get started!
First you need a strawberry pot. Now the pot above is your plain old strawberry pot that you can get at Lowe's or Home Depot. But if you look harder you might find some really great ones that are a little shorter and painted with great colors. They even have small ones that have just 3 holes. I have a medium size pot waiting to be potted after this one. That will make 5. This one was originally potted with echeveria glauca in every hole. It looked really great but then became root bound this last year so a couple of days ago I tore it all out. Now I get to start new.
The bottom hole can always be a problem in any pot. You don't want any dirt running out with your water of course. You also don't want to plug it up so the water does not drain. I like to use broken up old pots. I lay them over the hole and then in the next shot you will see I put rocks over this. I want to hold the crockery in place and also give any excess water a place to go before it drains out.
Here you see the rocks I placed over the crockery.
Time to add some dirt.
Add your palm and cactus mix potting soil just until it reaches the bottom of the first holes. Now it is time to pick out your plants and cuttings to add to this bad boy!
I have a lot of trimmings from other plants that have been sitting around waiting to be planted in the ground. You need to let your trimmings to sit for about a week to allow the cut end to harden off. Otherwise it will most likely rot and not root. So I have an echeveria bud, some sedum donkey tail, crassula muscosa, Sedum Rubrotinctum and Kalanchoe panamensis. Some new plants to be added are Pachyphytum bracteosum, Crassula 'Moonglow', Crassula perforata variegata, Echeveria compressicaulis, Graptoveria Bella and a Jade plant in a pumpkin pot I have had for a while.
I like to place my plants in the holes so I can get an idea what the pot will look like. Make sure you do this. Once the plant is planted and you fill this with dirt it is hard to fix a mistake. Make sure if you use a couple of the same plant you place them on opposite sides. Think about having a kind of thriller plant up top 'my Jade plant' and spillers 'donkey tail sedum' around the top edge and maybe a hole or two. You want the thriller to grab someone's attention and the spillers just give the pot a little flow and are just fun. I actually add the pots in the holes if they will fit at this point as you can see in the picture. Of course you remove the pots when you are ready to plant. Remember not to get plants that are too big because they will continue to grow.
At this point start adding your dirt and as each hole comes up add your plant. Be careful not to tear your plants apart. I add the plants from the outside in. Keep adding the dirt and pack it in. As the plants go in use your fingers to compact the dirt around the plant. Yes the hole will fill up with dirt. Don't be afraid of this because if you compact the dirt enough and follow my next step you won't have a problem. So continue all the way up the pot with dirt and plants and or cuttings. Now you may wonder how does the water get all the way down to the bottom plants when I water. Some people add a plastic water bottle with holes in the middle of there pot and then add water to this. Rubbish!!! Your water will reach the bottom as long as you are patient and water the top and wait till the water seeps out the bottom. Also water each little hole. Make sure when you water the holes you don't use much water pressure. At least until the dirt has completely settled and plants grown a bit.
To keep the dirt from coming out of the holes when I water "especially in the beginning" I add some decorative rocks over any dirt areas that I think might have a problem. I add them in the top also to complete the look of the pot. I have found by trial and error that this step really helps quite a bit. When the plants start filling in take the rocks out. You won't have trouble with dirt coming out then.
Yeah! I am finished. I think the final product turned out really nice. It will fill out nicely and I love to watch it's progress. After I have put one of these pots together I let it sit for a day or two before I water it. I kind of freaked out the plants with my shenanigans so I give it a break before I water it.
So I hope I made the directions pretty clear. Let me know if you have any questions or if I can add some helpful hints. See below a shot of a smaller pot I planted a couple of years ago. I love the cobalt blue!
I took this shot today. The other side looks pretty awesome too! So let me know if you plant one of these guys. I would love to see what you can do! Do a post and let me know! Of course you can add beautiful flowers or anything else your little heart desires. But as you know my heart desires those Sassy Succulents!
Have fun! And remember, It's Another Beautiful Day!
