Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season and feels renewed and refreshed and ready to take on 2016 by the horns. I’m not 100% there yet to be completely honest (I mean it is a Monday morning), but I’ll get there soon hopefully 🙂 I’ve been a little MIA lately because I’ve been soaking in my time off from my “real” job by spending every bit of it with family and friends and not really focusing much on social media. It’s been kind of amazing, I have to say. I’ve realized how much time I can waste on all the social media outlets, wondering what other people are up to and sharing what I’m up to … it’s pretty incredible the amount of time you gain by not paying any attention to that stuff, but I’ll save my thoughts on that for another day.
Instead of getting all deep and sentimental with you this morning, I thought I’d share a fun and simple DIY instead – the succulent terrarium in a jar. And before you stop reading – no, you do not have to have a green thumb to make this work. Succulents are for everyone – green thumb, pink thumb, no thumb, doesn’t matter. Just give ’em some sun and don’t over-water, and they’ll most likely be content.
My husband and I host an annual Christmas party (6 years strong now) with our friends and I just love giving out little party favors to everyone. I always plan on getting creative and making something, but most years I run out of time and end up buying something instead. But alas! This year I found some time to let my creative juices flow. I’ve had this idea on my “She’s Crafty” Pinterest board since forever and I’m happy to say it’s a keeper. Now I haven’t followed up with anyone on how the plants are doing, but the one I made for myself looks pretty darn good if I must say. Fingers crossed everyone else’s do too …
My first step in this DIY was to decide what materials I wanted to use. And yes, I’m counting this as a “step” because we all know how indecisive I can be. The great thing about this project is that you can pretty much use whatever you want. The only definites you need are some sort of a clear glass container, potting soil, and a succulent. The rest is really up to you!
I decided to use clear glass jars because I had a boat load of them.
I wanted to do a few different layers in the terrariums to give them a “fun” feel, so I went with sand mixed with crushed coral as the bottom layer. The sand/coral mix will also work to absorb any excess water. Succulents will rot if you refresh them too much so I thought this would be a helpful addition. The sand came from Home Depot and the crushed coral came from Petsmart (aquarium section).
The second layer is what makes the terrariums, in my opinion at least. I picked up a few bags of colored aquarium gravel while at Petsmart and used these to brighten up each jar. I went with a pinkish-purple, a black/white mix, and a blue/green mix.
The third layer is the necessary layer – the potting soil. Just make sure to add enough soil so that the succulent can root well and so that it’s not flimsy once you set it in the jar.
And now the fun part! Add your succulents! I ordered a 20-pack of assorted succulents off of Etsy (way cheaper than buying them individually). The one thing to keep in mind here is that if you’re using a small glass container (like I did), make sure to buy the right size succulents. Most of the time you can buy 2-inch or 4-inch plants. I had to stay with the 2-inch plants so that they’d fit inside the jars.
I added some small river rocks (also found in the aquarium section of Petsmart) around each succulent once I planted them, just to add a little somethin’ somethin’.
Next up, give them a little bit of water (just a little bit I tell you), set them by a window, and watch them grow! Or at least not die.
And that does it! Pretty simple, right? And pretty cool-looking too. So cool-looking in fact that I used the leftover gravel to make 2 more terrariums out of larger glass containers I had lying around. I’m living in a succulent wonderland I tell ya. Enjoy your week!
L Claire Designs 