Thank you for your purchase of this succulent pumpkin centerpiece. It makes a great fall hostess gift and/or centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner. This arrangement will last for months without water. But, in a couple of weeks if the succulents start to shrivel you can give them a little spritz with a spray bottle. Not too much, just a bit.
In a few months if the pumpkin or gourd starts to get squishy don't throw it all away. Just carefully peel the succulents, shells and pinecones off the top. You can then plant your succulents in cactus/succulent soil and keep the shells and pinecones for other craft projects. See my blog post about succulent propagation: Growing and propagation of succulents
If you have any questions contact me: deanarae@deanarae.com
Congratulations on the purchase of this lovely container planted with succulents. Handmade with love for you in Carpinteria, CA.
Care: Succulents like bright indirect light. Because this jar does not have a drainage hole, it is very easy to over water and kill your succulents. Succulents can survive with little water. If you have a moisture meter, check the soil before you water. Make sure to measure the water in a separate container first. It probably only needs 1/4 cup of water every month. If you have it outside and it gets full sun then water 1/4 cup every 2 weeks. It will let you know when it needs water. If the leaves look a little shriveled give it a 1/4 cup of water. Handmade with love: Each jar is lovingly hand painted with 2-3 coats of paint and sealed with varnish. Some are faux painted and all are made to look worn and old. Truly shabby chic! The paint should hold up well if the jars don't get too wet. If the plants outgrow this jar they can be cut back and repotted. Read my blog post about growing and propagation: Growing and propagation of succulents Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. Warmly, Deana Rae Deana Rae Designs
According to a recent blog article by Wayfair.com...."The She Shed craze is taking over. Across the country, women are creating an oasis in their backyard to help escape the stress of the day. Some use their She Shed as an office while others are using them as a quiet place to read and relax. What used to be a simple storage shed has turned into a fully customized living space. Man caves are so yesterday, the new trend is She Sheds." Click to read the full article where you will see that my photo is featured after they saw one of my Instagram posts. What an honor!!!
When my husband and I bought our house in 2011 this was just a dirty storage shed. Immediately I had visions of turning into a potting shed. But I quickly came to realize that was too much dirt to bring inside, and my plans started forming to make a cute little art studio instead. That was before I ever heard the term 'she shed.' Over the past four years I've added pieces and collected things from garage sales, thrift and antique shops. Whatever fun items I could repurpose. I love working in there and I can have all my collections out and leave a mess if I want. Then I just shut the door and my 'mess' is still awaiting the next day. I'm an artist, garden designer, master gardener, photographer, blogger and collector. This is the perfect place for me to go create and be inspired. It’s now my private cozy art studio that I use for painting, framing my photographs, crafting and more! I call the style of my She Shed girly rustic/shabby chic, with the best view ever.
View from my She Shed
If you search Google, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook for "She Shed" you will find thousands of images of beautifully designed and inspirational spaces. I created mine on a very small budget, but I have dreams of expanding it with an attached deck, French doors, seating and more! Please enjoy these photos of my She Shed - I hope they inspire you!!!
Before the transformation. It had good bones, all it needed was some paint and decor.
After transformation
I had the workbench custom-built to my height for standing or sitting in my director's chair.
This hutch was a Craigslist find and happened to belong to a neighbor one block away.
I can create a mess and then shut the door and go inside. Love that!!
Love my collections.
There is a place for everything in my She Shed. All my crazy treasures that need to and should be on display.
Monday, September 21, 2015
My big FAT front yard makeover!
Just look at this "before" photo. Why are we so addicted to lawns? They certainly do not belong in the summer dry climate of California. Being a lover of succulents and cacti, I knew I wanted to install a drought tolerant/waterwise landscape. We also wanted to upgrade the driveway and hardscape to make it more unified and attractive.
Before - Google street view - spring 2012
The ideas for a makeover started forming in my mind as soon as we viewed the open house and put in an offer on our home in October, 2011. We had obviously bought a "fixer upper" and that was OK with us. Located in Carpinteria, CA., just nine miles south of neighboring Santa Barbara, our home is one mile inland from some of the best beaches in California, and just below the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains*.
*The Santa Ynez Mountains above Carpinteria, CA., are a portion of the Transverse Ranges, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, of the west coast of North American, and are one of the northernmost mountain ranges in Southern CA.
Step one: Test garden - September, 2012 If I was going to remove my whole lawn and replace it with succulents, it seemed to me that I needed to learn about what grows well in the soil and how plants would respond to the sun exposure. First thing we did was remove a Crab Apple tree from our front yard and plant a succulent pocket garden in its place.
Test pocket garden - this was after about six months of growth, March 2013
Good news - the test was a great success. Plenty of sun for growing succulents in the front yard. We didn't have irrigation installed and these succulents were thriving. I amended the soil with cactus mix (recommended, as succulents like a well draining soil). I watered them about once a week until the plants were established. After that they were lucky to get water once a month. Step two: Hardscape Fast forward to July, 2014. Time to start the big FAT makeover. The first thing we did was install a new driveway and front walkway. That was a huge undertaking. The fun part was working with the contractor to create something unique. I acted as project manager and even designed the layout of the hardscape.
It was a messy job, but it needed to be done. Adding French curves to the design really transformed this space.
Step three: Grass removal. Phase I of the makeover. July, 2014 We went with the fast approach by having the sod cut out which saved a lot of labor time and effort. In hindsight, I would have created more mounded zones to the yard. However, that Agave wasn't going anywhere and it kind of prevented mounding. It turned out OK since our lawn has a natural slope out to the street.
July, 2014. First placement of the plants.
It is really overwhelming when you see the blank slate. Just make sure you know your plants. How big are they going to get? Group similar plants together in 'Hydrozones': plants with similar water needs, and irrigate them accordingly (high, medium, low and very low zones). Add large boulders before you add any plants. The Sydney Peak Granite boulders weighed 300-500 lbs. each. You don't want anything in the way.
First plants in the ground July, 2014. At first you wonder if your boulders are too large.
I created slight mounds for the pocket gardens on each side of the sidewalk. These plantings really transformed the approach to the front door and acted as a major focal point of the installation. Love how the hardscape turned out. Such an improvement!
Phase I AFTER photo. The planting area to the left didn't originally exist. It was designed to showcase the front entry, and softened the hardscape and the blank wall. The succulent pocket gardens really made a huge impact.
The Phase I goal was to get the initial layout in place and install focal plantings and stabilize the soil. It was so compact and dry we could barely dig holes to install the plants. To keep out weeds we went with construction plastic** under the mulch. Based on my research this was not the recommended material, but I didn't want to spend all my time pulling weeds. Drip irrigation was added for the flowering plants (only about 30% of my plants have irrigation) and succulent pocket gardens. I don't irrigate Agaves, cacti or the parkway. The goal was to save water and create a colorful, sculptural landscape.
Official Phase I - AFTER photo. September 24, 2014.
We had a little rain in the winter of 2014, and the mulch held up OK. Really saw a growth spurt after the rains in January, 2015. Slowly, I added plants here and there around the boulders. By March, the mulch wasn't looking good and needed to go. It was only installed as a temporary measure until Phase II could be completed.
After the rains the mulch got compacted, the irrigation tubes were showing, and it was faded looking. YUCK!
This photo shows plant growth and several new plants that were added.
But, that big blank spot was the first thing you saw, and that needed to change. Time for Phase II.
Phase II Makeover - July, 2015
Bye bye mulch...
First order of business, a new pocket garden installation in that big blank spot. My helper, Daniel working hard to get new plants in the ground. Lots of Guerrilla Gardening was done in the three weeks of this installation.
New pocket garden - AFTER. Much better. I did 80% of the planting and Daniel did 80% of the rock installation.
**Update on the quality of the soil. Turns out using that black plastic under the mulch created a type of "greenhouse effect" and a microclimate for the worms. Now the soil is almost perfect - so easy to dig, and the plants are loving it.
After the plants were installed it was time to add the top dressing - the icing on the cake! I had so much fun shopping for rocks and gravel. The different colors and textures really complements the sculptural quality of the plants. I think I love rocks as much as I love succulents. Is that possible?
Phase II AFTER Photos - August 8, 2015
Add a bit of whimsy to your garden. This unique turtle planter is perfect in this space.
This is the Phase I pocket garden next to the front walkway after one year of growth. I added a few
more plants to freshen it up and almost 100 new plants to the Phase II installation.
I've neglected to mention plant selection. 75% of the plants in my yard are cuttings from plants that were given to me that I nurtured in my nursery until they were big enough to plant in the Phase II installation.
I added several vignettes around the landscape with rocks for interest. I wanted to avoid a polkadotted planting.
I chose mostly succulents and cacti for my landscape, but also added flowering plants for interest, diversity and as food for the pollinators. I may be a succulent fanatic, but I love flowers too!!
The official Phase II AFTER photo. August 8, 2015
UPDATE: November 20, 2015 It's been a little over three months and I finally finished off the last of the rock installation. Things have really grown beautifully over the summer, despite record hot temperatures.
Fin! - So happy to be "done" with this project. Definitely a labor of love. My love of succulents!!!
I kept the parkway strip way more simple. The Fortnight Lily 'African Iris' is well established. Then I added these three Aloe Maculata. They look pretty sun stressed right now because they have been sitting out of soil for three months.
My front walkway pocket gardens after one year of growth! 11/20/15
What will this look like in five years? Can't wait to see it grow and flourish.
UPDATE April 2016
I turned off all irrigation over the winter. We have had a few nice rain storms and my plants are flourishing! My dry riverbed really worked well and held all the water from the rain gutters and kept it from just running off into the street. Video taken January 5, 2016:
Looking quite lush in July. We received a record high rainfall this spring and I lost a lot of plants. Even with the best planning succulents will rot if the soil doesn't dry out. Only the strong survive!
I had to move the walkway over three feet in front of Fred, the huge Agave Americana. I really can't believe how big he has grown. It's a committment to maintain a plant this large in your landscape. Just make sure to de-pup (remove any offsets) at least once a year and trim off the bottom leaves so it has room to grow.
UPDATE- 2018
July 2018 - Only three years in ground for most of these plants. Sometimes I can't even believe it myself how amazing it looks. So colorfull and satisfying. Not much to say but look how BIG Fred, the Agave Americana, has grown in just one year!
PRESS:
December 2015Front page of the Carpinteria Valley Coastal View News
Santa Barbara New Press October 21, 2017
August 2018 - Succulent Queen Debra Lee Baldwin has been using my before/after shots of my yard in her garden talks since 2015. This time she did a full feature article which blows this blog post out of the water.
For updates and garden highlights make sure to follow me on Instagram and Facebook. I post plant names, care and garden tips too! Instagram: bit.ly/DRDIG Facebook: facebook.com/deanaraedesigns/ And check out my YouTube video filmed in April, 2015 about succulent propagation: bit.ly/succulent1
Growing succulents is so easy you can go from small plants and cuttings to a lush garden in just a few months.
This is five months of growth in full sun.
Succulent gardens add interest to ordinary landscapes.
Because they look exotic, you might think succulents are difficult - to plant and care for.
In reality, they are some of the easiest plants to grow. They thrive in conditions other plants would consider neglect. The key to a successful succulent garden lies in the right kind of soil and light.
Once you master their basic needs, occasional watering is all you need to keep your succulents happy.
Setting yourself up for success:
Choose a location for your garden that gets full sun to partial shade.
Prepare the outdoor garden's existing soil by removing the grass and weeds and breaking it up with a shovel.
Create a fast-draining, succulent-friendly soil by combining equal parts coarse material, such as gravel or pumice, and either the existing garden soil or amend with cactus mix.
It’s important to plan the placement of your succulents. Place them close together if you want a garden that's immediately full. Space them up to 12 inches apart if you'd like to give the plants an opportunity to grow and spread out.
Wait up to a full week before you water to allow the roots to recover from any possible transplant damage.
Ongoing water and maintenence needs are discussed later in this presentation.
For me, one of the more enjoyable aspects of growing succulents is their propagation.
Cutting propagation. One of the most simple techniques of propagation. These plants were grown from cuttings used in my wedding bouquet. You simply cut and plant immediately in soil. You don’t have to let them heal over if you don’t water for a few days.
Plantlet propagtion. These plants are vi·vip·a·rous: Which means they reproduce from buds that form plantlets while still attached to the parent plant. To root, place plantlets on top of soil in small pots.
Once established this particular Kalanchoe can become invasive if not watched and maintained. But it is a great plant to fill in on slopes and large open spaces providing lots of color.
Offset propagation - Numerous glob-ular cacti and leaf succulents (Agave, Aloe, Haworthia) form numerous offsets or pups, which can be planted if rooted. If unrooted, root in pumice.
Seed propagation - Most cacti and succulents can be raised from seed. As home gardeners you may not want the huge quantities of seedlings but seed propagation is frequently used by commercial growers.
Grafting - is done for various reasons. The most common you see is Cacti that lack chlorophyll — like the "Red Cap” this brightly colored plant results from grafting two different species of cactus together.
Leaf propagation - This is an example of a leaf that propagated when itdropped off the plant - even without soil. See how the new plant is forming right at the end of the leaf? No, that is not my finger...haha
At first you don't even have to put them in dirt. Just collect them and keep them out of the sun in a cool dry place.
Once you see roots or a bud you can just lay them on top of some soil. Regular cactus mix works best.
I lay them flat because that is what happens in nature. Then I pretty much leave them alone. Once in awhile a splash some water on them when I think of it. But, these haven't had any for at least 2-3 weekes. Now that these have really taken off I might mist them. I also put a bunch of leaves on top of the soil in every pot I have growing in my propagation nursery. DON'T touch the leaf until it shrivels up and comes off. Don't try to remove the dead leaf. Just let nature take its course.
Once the new bud starts to form it uses the nutrients from
the leaf as it grows. Eventually the leaf shrivels up and
roots take hold as it keeps growing.
Some of my successes:
My succulent cuttings nursery. It's so great to go shopping in your own yard.
Echeveria 'Topsy turvy'
Various leaves that have grown into tiny plants!
All of these were cuttings that grew up.
All grown up. From one tiny cutting I have had dozens of plants flurish.
This is a small pocket garden that I put in my front yard. All of these plants were grown from cuttings as are most of my succulents.
When this was written I still had a lawn. This pocket garden was installed as a test garden to learn what plants do well in this location.
UPDATE - see my full lawn removal and updated front yard garden on my blog post: My Big Fat Garden Makeover
Front yard pocket garden
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