I love plants. Sometimes I love them too much and I smother them. Sometimes not enough and I starve them. I have a black thumb and will kill pretty much anything that isn’t a basic philodendron (which reminds me, oh crap, I’ve been meaning to water the three I have upstairs!).
A few days ago, we went to Lowe’s and I picked up these beauties on my way out:
Succulents. I have the worst luck with succulents, but I love them so. These tiny plants are supposed to be super easy to take care of (we’ll see about that), and I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t have anything to plant them in, so I picked up a couple of fishbowls for $1 a pop:
We love seeing the whole plant — dirt and all. It’s a nice change from the basic white planters we have all over the house. (We usually go with white planters from IKEA because they’re cheap, durable and neutral enough for any room.)
Right after we planted these puppies, we Googled to make sure we didn’t absolutely need to drill holes in the bottom of the containers. Turns out, we can skip that step if we pour a little activated charcoal at the bottom of the dish, then pile the dirt on top of that. We picked up a small container of charcoal at the pet store — they have it in the fish/aquarium section — and replanted them. So far, they’re doing OK.
Cost breakdown for this easy-peasy plant project:
Small fishbowls = $2 for 2
Plants = $5
Dirt = $6 for a big bag
Charcoal = $9 for a small container (I used maybe 1/10th of the container)
Total cost = $22
Cost per plant = less than $4 each
Not too shabby! In other plant news:
Our day lilies are back! Now here’s a plant even I can’t kill. They come up on their own, I never have to water them and they die because their time is up — not because I forgot to change their soil for 3 years.
I really like the look of the plants in fishbowls. Makes me think it’d be really cool to put them in wine glasses – there are some that are big enough to fit enough dirt for a proper sized plant.
Ooh, that sounds great. Give it a shot!
Charcoal might neutralise the water, but it won’t get rid of it – I’d still water these guys very lightly, succulents hate soggy roots. I’m a bit of a plant geek and as much as I love cool design, the health of the plants should be first and foremost – cause if they’re healthy they look better. There are so many ‘designer pots’ that look amazing, but aren’t very good for long-term plant homes.
(I’m sorry, I don’t want to be negative, I love your blog, I really do.)
Thanks for the advice. We really don’t know much about plants. So far they’re doing really well — we give them a drop of water once a week or so. If they start looked sad, we’ll definitely move them to a different planter.