succulent wall garden UPDATE!

warning: this project may give you a huge head

i feel like a serious real life big girl right now.

hey y'all, like look what i can do- oh just make succulent boxes and keep them alive and stuff.
ya know, its not like i didn't believe in myself but i really just didn't believe in myself.

i felt like they were so pretty and almost too easy to create that i figured eventually they would either die or just never sprout and it would be a major bust.  however, my thumb is obviously boomin' green (that's a serious green, vibrantly green- crayola has no clue what this green is-its that green!) oh, and i'm totally bragging because look at my wall garden!

so about a week or so after i made my first succulent garden boxes our garden gal liz came by to check on other things happenin' in our yard. liz had just made her own garden box and was checking mine out. mine were chillin on their tables in the sun with about 5-7 more weeks until their wall debut.

well, this moment is what i imagine it would be like for a singer to stand in front of simon cowell and belt a tune. ok, well, maybe not as life changing as that, i do have a flair for dramatics. anyway, hang with me, this is going somewhere.....

ok, so back to holding my breath waiting for liz to tell me why my boxes wouldn't work and how they were wrong and how i was really kinda lame and should stick to my day job and get myself outta the garden. it was a very hurtful scenario where i would feel like a huge loser and i would run from my garden sobbing.

but, (always a but with me) liz kinda spent a minute picking around in my succulents, pulling off pieces and then she said, "this is really good kendra, you did it perfectly, this should be beautiful and ready to hang in about 6-8 weeks.......unless......" liz started to look at the chicken coop wiring and started picking around again. yes, yes liz, unless what???? is this where she says, "haaaaa, kidding, this sucks- dump it!" no. liz started to explain how i could hang this thing up tomorrow if i wanted to. liz is rad. period.

apparently all i had to do is go on down to jo-ann's fabrics and buy this box of greening pins and push one through the center of each succulent! i mean, i was spearing them and they still refused to give up life on me-we are bonded forever now.

lastly, you take some moss, weave it through the chicken wire being sure to get the moss around the base of each succulent (mostly the moss is so the dirt doesn't fall through the wire when you hang it as the pups will not have rooted yet) then hang it up on your wall and go on with life as if you are not an amazing bad ass garden girl. this last part is hard to do coz you feel rather special for a bit of time. you just have to kinda act normal. its a process.

anyway, just a few secrets for you instant gratification people like myself. i hope you try it, i hope you feel awesome about yourself and i hope you enjoy your succulent boxes all year long. now i must go and stare at my creation......

hanging succulent garden

a few weeks ago i decided i was gonna give a wall garden a try. i had been viewing them in hotels, magazines and reading all kinds of diy's on them.

 i have been a lover of succulents for quite sometime and last year i had a whole bunch of them planted in my front and back yard. recently we had another yard overhaul and had a professional service come in and do all kinds of pretty work which included yep! more succulents!

i had planned for this project to take all day and to get all kinds of dirty, surprisingly it only took about 1/2 the day but not surprisingly i did get really really dirty.

here is what you need:

-1"x4" pieces of wood. these will be your box.

-wood screws to ensure your box will be strong enough

-plywood or alder for back of the box

-outdoor varathane that is water resistantchicken wire,

-chicken wire

-cactus soil

-molding. this can be whatever size you'd like and will be the pretty around the box edge.

-lots of succulent pups

1"x4" wood strips

here is what i love about shane.
i told him how i was gonna try to make these boxes and he built the frames for me ahead of time. this may of been because he didnt want to see me with a nail gun in hand.
hmmm.....he's such a bro.

here is the box with the back on. i made a large box and a smaller box. 

they are about 24"x30" and 16"x20". 

i also have another larger frame built which i will work on soon so i have a nice display large enough to fill the side of my garage wall over my fountain.

remember when i said that if you didn't have a hawaiian you should go out and get one? i stand by that.

use regular nails and wood screws as well. if you want to paint your box now is the time to do so and you will coat it with varathane once the paint is dry.

i chose to leave my garden box looking natural. 

after your box is made and the back is attached you will spray it with the varathane. be sure and get all the corners, sides and the back. you will want to do 2-4 coats of this to keep the wood from rotting over time.

because the boxes have to lay flat for 4-10 weeks (or until they take root) we decided to make a few at one time. i did buy some succulents but you can also trim pups off any of your existing succulents and just let them dry for a day or two so the end will callus over. you just want to leave (in the very least) 1/4" stem to bury into the soil.

succulent pups drying out on a plate

be careful for friendly cute yard animals that think you brought them treats.

once your varathane is dry (about 30 min. to 1 hour) you can fill the box with your soil

next you will stretch the chicken wire over the box and staple it on. cut the excess wire off.

add your decorative trim molding.

look how baddass i am with that staple gun!

now is the fun part. 

designing! 

i decided to run a zig zag through the larger of my boxes with the pinkish succulents. you will want to leave some room for the succulents to grow and spread so don't fill every wire opening.

finished large box

finished smaller box.

now is the really hard part.

waiting for them to take root so you can hang up your garden and enjoy.

while they are laying flat you will want to water the boxes every 7-10 days. 

we are going to hang our boxes on the wall with hooks to make it easier to take down and water. after you take them down to water be sure and leave them flat for a few days to firm back up before hanging again.

once my succulent boxes are ready to hang i will update you and post some pictures- i can't wait!