Succulent Dishes

...and What to Do With Glass Insulators

Today, I made some presents.  With dirt.  Because I wanted to bring my neighbor some cookies, but, you know, anyone could be allergic to anything these days, but who's allergic to cactus?  No one's allergic to cactus.  Right...?

One for my neighbor, one for my friend from church, and one for Dave.

Ok, ok, the last one was really for me.  Not that I'm allergic to some chocolate chip cookies...

I'm not sure if they'll survive the manhandling they got today, so I'm going to hold on to the two gifts until I get off hitch in 2.5 weeks. Then I'm gonna go play neighbor.

 The Giant aloe was a gift from Mom many moons ago...I'll never forget the joy in her voice as she broke off a few pieces from her own aloe, set them in the pot, and explained that all they needed was a little blanket of dirt and they'd grow like Jack's beanstalk.  Mom, you were right, as I'm sure you know.  The bucket of hens and chicks I got at an antique store, of all places, and everything else came from the blue hardware store (don't bother with the orange...none of them seem to have little succulents like these).

 I bought $4 pasta bowls at Big Lots, and my first ironstone dish, the tureen, was $15 at that antique store (y'all, up north they have awesome antique stores).

I just love succulents.  They're vibrant, juicy-looking, fuzzy, tiny, and need nothing to thrive.  Except sunlight.  They get really whiny when they don't get their sunlight.

Final cost breakdown at the end ;)

 Since I wasn't (at all) confident that I could drill drainage holes in the ceramic without damaging the dish, I lined the bottoms of the "planters" with rocks from our backyard.  Then I put some dirt in and started divvying up the pretty succulents.

 Easy peasy, right?

 One down,

 ...then the next,

 ...and I did mine last:

 To do all three took about an hour, including the time it took me to waffle around about the "design" of each dish.  By the end of the process, I discovered a few things:

1. Don't put too many rocks on the bottom for drainage.
2. You can't put too many rocks on the top for decoration.
3. Six varieties of plants in an 8" bowl is more than enough.
4. You might think you put enough soil into the dish, but you probably didn't.
5. The sweet, fuzzy succulents that I love are good at catching and holding onto dirt as you try to add it to the dish that you didn't put enough soil into.

Ok, the cost breakdown:

Aloe = free

Hens and Chicks = $15 (only used 1/3 for 2 gifts)

Other plants = $44

Bowls = $4 each ($15 for mine)

Rocks = free

Soil = um, I already had a bag, but it was cheap

Total Per Dish = hard to say

Because really I didn't use all of the plants I bought in these three dishes...I actually had a lot of leftovers.  So I'm gonna say that *if* I had only bought enough plants for these three dishes, each gift would've been about 15 bucks, and my own D-lux version would've been $26.  I believe I came out ahead.  I'm pretty sure.

So there you have it!  Pretty presents, and one lovely addition to my desktop (which is so close!  It's so close, I have no more desire to work on it!).

And with my leftovers...

 ...I filled an empty pot I've had for a long time...

...and I got creative with the rest.  Here's the story.

A while back when Dave and I went for a walk, we found these:

 They're glass insulators.  I'm not sure exactly what they were for, but I think it has something to do with telephone lines.

(Yes I'm online, yes Google could explain what they're for, yes I am too lazy to look it up right now.  But you can look it up, if you're really interested.  You have my permission.  We'll wait here for you.)

So what have I done with my glass insulators?

Ta-daa!

They fit perfectly into an iron wall candle holder that Aunt June gave me a few weeks back!

 Sigh of contentment.  I just love succulents.