Sedum growing from coconut shell
Succulents are not only beautiful but also the easiest plants to have in your garden. I have enjoyed collecting succulents over the last few years and have had fun multiplying them and giving them away as gifts. However, finding containers to plant them has been very expensive. I needed to find cheaper alternatives since some multiply at a fast rate. My attempts to sell them online (hoping to open up some breathing space in the garden) hasn't been so successful. The first time I put out an advert for the plants was followed by India declaring her first lock-down. Two years down the line I am still trying to find ways to make money from the excess succulents on my terrace.
Space and money need to be handled wisely.
I needed to find alternatives to store bought plastic containers which should fulfill the following criteria
- should be natural,
- should not occupy too much space
Or - should be a way of recycling plastic waste.
Working my way through problems
Most succulents being slow growers teach me to be patient. Succulents are also versatile plants which can grow in any kind of container. I used these to my advantage. For city dwellers like me space is a huge constraint. My terrace garden has succulents, cacti, veggies and flowering plants. If the flowers and succulents multiply too fast there will be no space for the veggies which I need for food. I constantly struggle to maintain some kind of vegetative balance.
Ice-cream pot succulent garden
I love growing succulents because I don't have to give them a lot of attention, space or even prime location in terms of sunlight. They just fit in anywhere and into anything. Even the tiniest of containers is enough to grow most succulents.
(A cup of tiramisu is now home to these jelly beans)
Making the best use of waste materials
I had collected a number of ceramic pots and plastic containers during the summer. Summer being the time for ice-creams and my family consumed a particular type of fruit and nut ice-cream which comes in tiny ceramic pots. Of course these pots are not meant for growing plants, more so for succulents which need good drainage. I decided to find ways to drill holes into these pots to make them usable. My attempt wasn't a great success as the bottoms of these tiny pots are fragile and crumble when drilled into.
Bottomless pits, sorry pots
I ended up with a number of pots with no bottoms. I threw these broken pots into a corner as they were useless. I still had a few pots that were good so I started to grow a few succulents in them purely to find out how these plants would adapt to growing in a tiny pot. They grew and have been thriving in them for a while now.
Finding the bottom for the bottomless pots
One day while working on my bonsai plants it stuck me that I could use the same plastic mesh I use for the bonsai pots in my bottomless pots. I cut out circular meshes and I have a little succulent garden in ice-cream containers.
From frustration to finding alternatives
While I was still frustrated with not being able to use the little ceramic pots which were bottomless or were left undrilled I found myself left with more baby plants than containers. There were succulents lying all around begging to be re-potted in their own space. My eyes fell on the coconut shells lying around in my garden, it did seem like a great option, but I was worried about the drainage issue with the hard shells.
Taking risks
I decided I had enough succulents to spare so I could take the risk of losing some plants while experimenting with the coconut shells. I went about planting some coconut shells with the sedums. They didn't seem to do much at first but they didn't die out either. I was happy. A year down the line this is how some look. Many others have been looted by friends who just couldn't keep their hands off these.
More experimentation
This was followed by planting other succulents in these shells. Some of them have done really well while other have rotted depending on the thickness of the shell inside. Either ways the coconut shell planters were a nuisance as they could only be hung using macrame style hangers or needed to be placed in a container to hold them in place without tumbling about. I needed to find a solution solution to this problem.
Problems or solutions
The take away food containers that we generally throw into the landfills was my solution to the problem. I stuck these coconut containers into the little food containers. It was then I realized that these contraptions swallowed up more space than normal containers would. I gave up on the coconut shells and went back to other options.
Soda bottles to the rescue
I cut Sprite bottle down to size to plant my succulents. Especially those which had grown free with no effort from my side. I had other uses for the left over portion (more of that in another post)
Propagating Succulents
Stem cuttings, beheading, leaf propagation are some of the easiest ways to grow succulents. I'll tell you more about beheading in another post, but for now I will talk about leaf propagation. Leaf propagation is the easiest and the most amazing way to grow plants. I know a lot of plants that grow from leaves not just succulents.
You don't have to do a thing
Yes, I don't do much when it comes to leaf propagation. The leaves drop as they grow older or when its windy or when they are moved around by something or someone. They stay there on the ground, under the shade of the container and slowly develop roots. While cleaning your garden you find these treasures and give them a space to grow, and you would have soon propagated another plant or three from these. Usually 3-4 plants grow from one leaf. That is the magic of succulent leaves.
Some succulents (like this topsy turvy above) have hundreds of pups growing on their stem, right below the leaves. These pups hide below dead leaves which need to be removed to make space for the pups. When the pups grow to a decent size and are ready to survive on their own they are potted into trays or small containers.
Lessons from my Garden
Everyday I learn new things from my garden. There is no dearth of lessons to be learned and when you think you know something nature teaches you who is wiser. In the garden you learn to be humble, you open yourself to learning all the time. You take each day as it comes. You learn to keep your expectations low and take what you get with gratitude.
(A bowl of some take away noodles now holds these)
You are entitled to nothing be it in your garden or in life! A great lesson to be learned, don't you think? If so tell me in the comments.
This is one challenge I don't want to miss each month. If you love gardening and have still not posted here follow this link and join in ASAP as time in running out.