As you know by now, I have a thrift store and yard sale addiction that has served me well over the years. One of the most common things found at thrift stores and yard sales are mismatched wine glasses. So, I started thinking of ways to use thrift store wine glasses in my home. This is the first in a series of creative uses for those thrift store cast-offs.
What is less known is that I have a brown thumb. Well, ‘brown thumb’ is painting a relatively rosy picture. The truth is I have a black thumb. I can’t keep house plants alive to save my soul. Unless there’s an automatic watering system, any plants brought into my house should be warned they are facing certain doom. I’d like to think it’s because I travel a lot – days, weeks, months at a time – and as a single girl, even when I’m home I’m rarely home. But in my heart I know that’s not the whole story. House plants and I just don’t get along, and I’ve come to accept it.
Succulents, however, are a different story.
Succulents don’t need my constant care and attention. They don’t need me hovering over them to make sure they’re not too wet, not too dry. They couldn’t care less if I forget to water them for a week, even two. They don’t grow fast, so they don’t need constant repotting. They are, in effect, the perfect house plant for a single-girl-on-the-go.
Here are my instructions on how to make a succulent garden in thrift store stemware.
Start with a variety of stemware. I like using glasses of varying heights, but it’s important that they have a rim and bowl wide enough to fit a small succulent and some decoration.
Place a few pebbles or some gravel in the bottom of the glass. This allows for drainage. You know, if you actually remember to water them.
On top of the rocks, place a thin layer of moss or charcoal filter. This will help the soil from filtering down into the rocks.
Add a small amount of soil.
Carefully ad your succulent(s). If you’re planting cacti, I use chopsticks to help get the cacti into the glass without sustaining personal injury. Fill in the remaining space with more soil.
Top the soil with a little white sand. This is purely optional, but I found it helps the succulent stand out, and allows any decorations to be seen easily. Decorate your mini garden with pretty pebbles or shells or beach glass. Whatever suits your succulent fancy.
Group your wine glass succulent garden on a side table, or in a window, and viola! A little bit of living decoration.
Watering your succulent garden couldn’t be easier. Give each wine glass garden 4 or 5 spritzes with a water bottle each week. And if that’s too much responsibility for you, do what I do and give each glass about a tablespoon of water each month. Even I can manage to remember to do that.
