How To Plant Succulents

So, here’s where we started. Just like everything else, weeds and more weeds. I didn’t really now what to do with this planter at first. And I thought it would make a perfect little succulent garden. I know, I know I just talked about about high desert landscaping last week and how important it is to plant native plants. Let’s just say I don’t really think that the succulents will make it much longer than the next couple months (not because of how I planted them, but because it’s about to get real cold and real wet in Bend for winter). As I explained last week, we are only called a desert in relation to the amount of rain that falls in Portland. We’re at the base of some beautiful mountains and end up getting quite a bit of that mountain town snow. Succulents don’t do well in the snow (or any excess moisture really), but they are great for the summer here and I love them so I decided to give them a try. When you’re planting succulents, the single most important thing is that you have adequate drainage. To achieve this, I started with digging most of the soil out of the bed and filling the bottom with pine cones, rocks and Perlite. This helps create a shallow bed for any water to sit so it’s not sitting in the soil or the roots of the succulents.

Then I began filling back in the dirt I had originally removed and added in Perlite and new potting soil to the native soil followed by adding in the fun little succulent plants. I used about 1/2 native soil, 1/4 new potting soil and 1/4 Perlite. Another good alternative is to add sand to your soil. When I removed them from their plastic pots I opened up the roots a little with my had and then just planted like normal.

Lastly, I covered the bed with river rocks. I think this gives it a really fun and classy look.

Easy as that! What other tips do you have for planting succulents?

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