Welcome friends! Today I am sharing some succulents that I just planted in pretty thrifted pots and urns, and some photos of the little gardening area just outside our side door. The side door is the main entrance that we use daily, so that it is where my kitchen herb garden and all of my favorite plants are located. It is close to our patio where we enjoy the views during  al fresco dining or just relaxing during summer evenings.

I actually just love lingering around this area several times a day, checking in on my plants, snipping herbs for cooking or just enjoying their fragrance. I am just now getting it all fixed up for summer, so in a week or two I will share a more detailed post with more photos of my plants and garden goodies.

Directly next to the door is a metal plant etagere/jardiniere (garden stand/baker’s rack). I have been styling it up with some favorite herbs, succulents and annuals that I hope will last all summer. Purple oxalis, bi-colored shamrocks, succulents, mini-roses, cool-toned plants, several herb varieties in pretty garden pots and little treasures all bring a smile to my face each time I enter and exit the door.

Succulents are wildly popular and “on trend” in modern farmhouse and boho chic decor, but I also think they can have a very old, country cottage and French look depending on the container they are planted in or the garden setting. I planted some new hen and chicks in the pretty French jardin pot that I purchased earlier this spring at Home Depot for less than $5.00. I love it!

I recently found this pretty teal pot on clearance at TJ Maxx (it had a few small cracks, but that doesn’t bother me a bit.) The color and style perfectly matched the other pots and the European cottage garden look that I am creating on the plant stand. I planted some beautiful bluish-teal sedum and a few other succulents in the pot. It looks a little uneven now but the succulents will quickly fill out.

Last week I scored these pretty urns/pots at a neighborhood yard sale. Green is my favorite color and I love the design of each little pot. I saw that Hobby Lobby currently still carries these same pots, but I still got a better deal at the yard sale than I would have even if I had used the 40% off coupon to purchase them new. Because they don’t have drainage holes, I decided I would plant succulents in them, since succulents don’t need very much water anyway.

Succulents can be expensive, but just this past week I spotted a large tray of mixed succulents on clearance at Walmart for less than $8.00! These succulents will multiply over and over in the years to come, so it really was a great deal!

First I cleaned the pots by soaking them in a mixture of Dawn with a tiny bit of bleach to kill any mold spores or plant diseases that may have been left over from previously potted plants.  After washing and thoroughly rinsing the pots, I filled them 3/4 of the way with broken up pieces of styrofoam that I had saved from various packages. I have had great luck using styrofoam for drainage in pots and containers. (By the way, we just refreshed our entire landscaping with new river rock and I am loving it!)

I didn’t take a picture of this step for this post, but here is a photo of the same steps from the Easy Succulent Hanging Basket Using Dollar Tree Supplies that I made my mom for Mother’s Day. I also mixed a bit of perlite in the soil. I know it is not environmentally friendly, but I feel it is better to put the styrofoam to good use as flower pot drainage than the alternative of sending it to the landfill where it will take 100’s of years to decompose!

I just love succulents!

Next I filled the rest of the pots with potting soil, then planted the succulents. I cut sections of the succulents out of the tray (the succulents were planted in a thin layer of soil on top of a layer of coconut fiber) and simply tucked the sections down in the pots. If any succulents broke off I just took the end and “rooted” them back down in the soil.

I placed the two “new” succulent pots on another rusty metal plant etagere in the side flower bed. I really like these green pots placed adjacent to the yellow bricks.

The succulents are newly planted and they look nice already, but they will really look great in just a few weeks.

I had a good sized “mat” of succulents leftover so I thought it would be fun to use the succulents to add some color to my bird bath. I created a whimsical succulent display inside the rusty old birdcage on top of the bird bath with my two Cottingley Garden Sprites from Victorian Trading Company. Just like in the pots, the succulents will grow out and spread nicely across the birdbath and may even weave in and out of the birdcage.

I am going to add a few more fairy garden plants and accessories soon and I will definitely share more of this magical fairy garden as it evolves.

Earlier this spring I also found this beautiful, shabby white urn at a local shop for only $10.00. Even though it looks like an old concrete urn, it is actually resin and probably not that old but nevertheless it certainly looks vintage. I actually like it better being resin because it is light weight and it doesn’t hurt me to lift it.

I filled the urn with some beautiful sedum, hen and chicks, and an assortment of succulents that had wintered over in another old pot I had.  A couple of the “chicks” have multiplied from some hen and chicks that originally came from my great grandmother’s and grandmother’s gardens! I also used a few pebbles and rocks to fill in gaps and to help with drainage.

I placed the pretty white urn on the sidewalk next to my new tiny corner French herb garden. (More about this new herb garden and the etagere plant by the side door in an upcoming post!) Here you can see a couple of stray succulents on the sidewalk. I simply picked them up and rooted them down in the urn.

Succulents are so easy! The roots do not have to be planted very deeply.  They will take root on their own and multiply and spill out over the sides in no time, and the perennial varieties will winter over. To illustrate how to plant succulent pieces, I just laid the two loose succulent pieces on top of the soil. I will gently tuck the ends down into the soil almost up to the first set of leaves/blooms and they will just root and take off!

This little space by the side door is coming together so nicely. I can just imagine how a privacy fence or a brick or stone wall with a little gate would really change the look and transform it into my little private gardening oasis. Perhaps I should check into a professional fencing company to see what kind of options we would have for enclosing this section of the yard.

Sunset

Garden dreams…sighs…

Recently I shared a post all about the Midway Flower Market in historic Midway, KY. After my visit I am just smitten with the idea of a creating a small European courtyard/patio! (If you love flowers and gardening, be sure to check out the Midway Flower Market post here.

If you are looking for low maintenance plants that come back year after year, give perennial succulents a try. The great thing about succulents is that you can root them and get more plants simply by sticking a piece of the succulent down in soil. They will grown in almost any kind of container  as long as they are not over watered, and they will even tolerate poor, dry soil. Whether you are one of the blessed green fingered gardeners or even if you have a black thumb, you can grow succulents! Keep your eyes open at rummage sales, thrift shops and on clearance at your favorite decor stores for inexpensive pots, urns and containers. Have you tried growing succulents? I love hearing from you, dear readers!

Thanks so much for visiting today! Happy succulent gardening!

Amber