TagHACKS

Creative DIY Succulent Planters Made from Upcycled Finds

Upcycling is a way of giving new purpose to waste. Here are some creative and inspiring ideas to upcycle at home.

 

Plastic / Polystyrene Food Trays.

These are perfect to fill with a little succulent/cacti mix and get those leaf babies going. I have also started to experiment with water propagation and these have been very useful.

 

How To Propagate Succulent Leaves In Water – Fast Results

Food Tins

I use cans all the time as planters, both indoors and outdoors. Huge dog food cans all the way down to little sweetcorn tins #cute. They need to have drainage holes drilled out the bottoms but they are lovely once planted up.  I have started to varnish my outdoor tins now as they do degrade after a year or two if left in the garden.

 

 

Paper / Plastic Cups.

Once the party is over and you are left with a garden full of disposable cups, fill a bucket with soapy water give the cups a quick rinse.  Drainage holes are easy to punch in the bottom of paper cups plastic cups need a snip to create the drainage. Now you have lots of planters ready to start cuttings or seedlings these are handy to re-pot any 5.5cm succulent.

Coffee Cups

You can also apply this to your takeaway coffee cups, They are easy to put a hole in the bottom and when you have more plants than pots anything goes.  Add plenty of grit as these are deep pots or plant up some sedum cuttings, they will enjoy the root space and grow into lovely healthy plants.

Perfect for starting tomato plants and sweetcorn too 😉

 

 

How To Propagate the Same Succulent Leaf Again and Again.

Yes! it is possible! I only found this out by pure chance and thought I would share It with you all, in the hope you have the same joy 🙂

Granted I have only tested this on ghost plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense ) and they are prolific little rooters anyway.  I was still shocked to find that gently removing the baby from the mother leaf left a good clean break, so I placed mum back in the dish and waited to see if anything would happen and it did 🙂 new babies growing just as well as the first set.

Removing the baby plant from the mother leaf can be quite a delicate operation, you cold gently cut away the baby but this never feels right to me so I hold the baby between my fingers and gently rock the mother leaf back and forth as you would taking a leaf cutting, slowly and gently it will come away from the baby and you should have a nice clean break.

I should point out that I have only done so with leaves that are still plump and reasonably healthy looking, ones that have been sapped of all life creating babies would not work.

Within a week new life has started to emerge from the mother leaf again!

Please give this a try, you have nothing to lose and a new plant to gain, let me know how you get on 🙂