My DIY Succulent Garden

I love Sunset Magazine. I really don’t say this about any other magazine, but I find so many great articles ranging from recipes to travel to indispensable gardening tips. In one of their recent issues, Sunset did an article on container succulent gardens planted in frames. I was intrigued.

My first task was to find a big frame that would work for this project. Fortunately I found the perfect frame at our local Goodwill Store for a total of $1.20 (they were having a 50% sale that day)! Next, instead of purchasing a bunch of succulents, I thought I would reach out to people in my neighborhood to see if anyone had some baby succulents, aka “chicks” that needed a new home. I was thrilled to meet so many succulent lovers and people were incredibly generous about letting me take some of their supply. In fact, in one case I was doing a neighbor a favor as she was thinning back a section of succulents. I painted my frame to match the trim of our house, and bought some cactus specific soil. I even had left over chicken wire from the compost bin I already had made (yet another article from Sunset).

Here is my finished project. I’m still waiting a bit longer for the succulents to take root before I hang it up in our patio area. As a result of this project I became a bigger fan of the succulent. I love the shapes, the texture and all of the hues of green. Especially in California where water is precious, succulents make beautiful gardens and even vertical art!