When there is too much of something we have the luxury of using them in different ways without considering the costs. Old things that lie around the home unused or under utilized could also be used in such experiments. I have both an abundance of succulents and an under utilized pot which had a wilting ivy. This ivy for some reason took an aversion to the pot and refused to grow luxuriantly as it does in various others pots in my garden. Well with the right resources in hand experiments are never far behind.
My first job was to collect the succulents needed for the project. I chose some echeverias, sedums and graptoverias for this piece . I needed the succulents to be in graded sizes, small to succulents for the bottom end and then some medium sized plants for the middle and big ones to fill the top of the jar.
My next job was to rescue a dying ivy from the old pot and break the pot. Okay not exactly break as in breaking it to pieces, but breaking it in a structured and planned manner.
I drew a an outline keeping it simple since this is my very first attempt at carving a niche in the pot. I hoped that I could mange to create the required space in the pot without encountering too many difficulties on the way. I got myself a pair of pliers, a triangular file, and an axe-saw. Simple instruments right? These are what I have at hand.
I etched along the lines with the file. I kept etching deeper until I felt it was deep enough to allow me to break the pot along the desired lines without breaking the pot to smithereens.
I did run into some trouble here as some parts of this terracotta pot was baked much harder than others and I couldn't make the indent so easily. I had to keep wetting while using the file so the pot didn't crack in other places. With a little more effort and elbow grease (ouch! darn, it really hurt my already stress fractured elbow) I tried to use the axe-saw to cut the pot as one would saw into wood. This process was slow but I was making inroads.
After much effort and about an hour of work I was about 80% successful in the sense that I did break a portion of the neck which wasn't part of the original plan. This made the pot look awkward, so I had to put the pieces roughly together and stuck them back together, you can see it clearly in the image above.
After waiting for a couple of hours for the jar to dry before going to the next step. With a sandpaper I lightly cleaned the surface, I had a plan to paint the jar, but ended up leaving it as it is. I like the rather rugged look of the jar. This decision reduced my work by about fifteen minutes.
The next phase of the job was to arrange the succulents. I have watched some Youtube videos which make this step look very easy. Let me be honest with you, this step is not only messy but also a time consuming job. You also need to be ready to organize and reorganize the plants a few times over to get the required look.
The plants need to be secured into position and firmed up with soil layer by layer. Filling the jar first with soil and and trying to insert the plants doesn't work that well. Maybe it would if you wet the soil adequately before filling the soil, I am not sure since I didn't try that. Maybe you could also try using a mesh to keep the soil inside.
There were a couple of things I felt I did wrong. I will be careful to avoid these mistakes when I make a similar arrangement the next time. The first one being - the small succulents need to have long stems, if this is taken care of most of your arranging work would be easy.
The next mistake I made was to use a small jar. A larger jar/pot would make the arrangement look even more attractive I feel. You could add a number of succulents as well.
This is the final look. After a few rounds of rearranging the succulents this is how it turned out. I wish now that I had made a deeper cut. I did have some cleaning up to do after all the mess I had created.
Thanks for your patience if you are still hanging around. I hope you liked the idea of arranging succulents in a clay/terracotta jar. I appreciate your time and support.