Saturday, October 24, 2020

Pretty Pumpkin Potters

 

Autumn is here and I am ready to embrace the season! Are you? 

For quite some time now, I've wanted to come up with some kind of pumpkin potter. I love the look of succulents on top of bright orange pumpkins, but hate that everything is glued on top with no real chance to grow. I even considered cutting open a real pumpkin to make myself a potter, but unless it's super cold outside, I just don't see it lasting more than a week before deteriorating. So I spent the better part of an hour at my local Hobby Lobby to see what I could put together. With so many colors and materials available, I finally found some Styrofoam-filled pumpkins that looked promising. 

What you'll need:
Styrofoam-filled Pumpkin
Plastic Insert for Soil (I used party cups and party bowls)
Preserved Moss
Hot Glue Gun
Cactus Soil
Mini Succulents




Step 1: Trace the widest end of your insert on top of your pumpkin. Use a knife to gently cut along the line. Unless your insert is deep, you won't need to cut too deeply. Remove the Styrofoam. Use a spoon to shape the Styrofoam until it molds around your insert.






Step 2: Use the hot glue gun to seal the crack between the Styrofoam and insert. This is to keep water from seeping into the Styrofoam and making a hot mess.



Step 3: Continue using the hot glue gun to add moss decoratively over the edge. I've used Reindeer Moss for this project.

Step 4: Add cactus soil and arrange succulents, lightly spritzing the roots before planting.

Lightly spritz your succulents every 1-2 weeks unless needed more often. We have good light in our living room, so our potters stay indoors. I will add that my son has had a succulent in his bedroom for several months now that he hardly remembers to water and rarely opens the blinds for. Surprisingly, it's still alive and actually growing in size.