DIY Succulent Bird Cage Garden

I was on a mission to create a container fairy garden this week when a friend asked if I had seen the bird cage succulent gardens on Pinterest.  A few clicks later and I knew the bird cage stuffed with silk plants gathering dust in the house was meant for greater things.

Obviously you will need a bird cage for this project, but don’t let your creativity stop there.  On a trip to Michaels I found these adorable measuring cups and mini bird cages and I picked up the little birds at Dollar Tree.  Once your creativity starts…

You will also need:

• Potting Soil
• Perlite
• Sheet Moss
• Small Rocks
• Sand
• Succulents

You can buy soil made specifically for succulents, or you can mix your own.  I mixed half potting soil, half perlite  and a touch of gardening sand.  Succulents need a dry soil that will drain quickly.  A constantly moist soil will quickly kill your succulents.

My bird cage did not have a tray on the bottom.  If it was going to stay outside a moss bottom would do, but I decided to line mine with a disposable tray.  If you are going to go with a moss bottom, soak it in water to make it pliable and mold it to the bottom of your cage.  I placed sand and small rocks in the tray to help absorb and keep the water away from the succulents.  I then added my soil and succulents using the moss against the walls of the cage to hold the soil in.

Since my measuring cups will not allow the soil to drain I placed a layer of rocks/pebbles in the bottom before adding my soil and plants.

What do you think?

 

 

 

Oh yeah – I bought a few too many succulents so here are some additional gardens I created. Not as creative, but still beautiful.

You have to be very careful when working with succulents.  They break off VERY easily.  Don’t let that upset you. Make sure you save the broken pieces for propagating new plants.

http://www.wikihow.com/Propagate-Succulents-from-Leaves

Gotta go – time to do some gardening!