Dishing the Dirt!

I am now officially in the gardening phase of my ADD cycle. I have left the dollhouse, quilting, wardrobe re-doing, knitting (did I mention I was obsessed with knitting again?) phases and have followed the lure of spring into the garden.

For the past two days I have had an obsession with succulent dish gardens. So there was nothing for it but to spend hours on the internet looking at pictures of cacti and fat leafed succulents. Then I had to go out and find the stuff to make my own. None of this was on my list of things to do on my spring break, but when the spirit moves you, what can you do? And, because I am obsessed, one is never enough. I had an overgrown bunch of succulents in the window, but I didn't like the pot. So I went out and bought this pot.


While I was at that nursery, I saw some lithops, which are the "living stones" but for some reason I always want to call them "living toes." They are such an odd little plant, I felt the need to buy some (they were only $2 each so I got 3). Well, what was I to do for a pot? I went to the flea market and found this really nice 50's style planter, but no hole in the bottom. Plus it wasn't really the right color for my "living stone toes." But I knew if I bought it, I could fill it.
This was another planter from the 50's they had (sans drainage hole) and I thought it was perfect for those odd little South African succulents. I had to go to Lowe's and buy a $7 drill bit for ceramics and glass, but I used it to drill holes in 3 of the planters I bought. (I thought I would destroy the planter, but Jim drilled while I used a spray bottle to keep spraying the bit with water to keep it cool and the dust down.)


This was a planter and succulents I had that I repotted and added the $3 cowboy to. He cracks me up.


He seems very serious about his job.
I bought this teacup and saucer at the Salvation Army on the way home today to use as a test run for the drill bit. Since it survived, I thought it deserved to have its own little succulent.

And these are the dish gardens all lined up in a row. The blue one is on the top shelf and didn't make the picture. They all need to fill in a little more before they reach their full photogenic potential. But I'm pretty excited about them.

Now I'm obsessed with the idea of 1940's and 1950's planters with holes drilled in the bottom. And funny little guys perched atop the soil. (The blue one was $6 and the yellow was $4.) Hopefully, my addiction will pass before I fill up the window.