Cactus & Succulent Planter! Making a Succulent Garden Pt. 1

Hey, what's up garden friends? Jeff here, Tropical Plant Party. How's everybody doing? I hope you're good. I'm great. And it's finally time to go ahead and make this big planter happen. The big cactus planter. Now, I put it up to a vote in last week's vlog. I said, what should I do with this pot? Should I go ahead and put my big Adiniti palm in it? Or should I go ahead and lift these cactus and succulents that are faux planted in the ground? They're not really in the ground, they're still in the nursery cans. Lift those out of the ground, put them in here. And it was pretty much the majority of everybody saying cactus planter. Quick explanation that was going to be in this week's vlog, but it actually took a long time to get the materials together and other stuff happened. The vlog got really long. So if you're interested in like the making or the becoming and just I don't know what to call it, that'll all be in tomorrow's vlog. This is much more cut and dry to the point, getting this thing done. For starters, one of the issues we have here is that this is a really big, really tall pot. That can be an issue with cactus and succulents because if there's too much soil depth, your water level is going to stay down there even though there's holes in the bottom and it can still be wicked back up. So I spent a lot of time trying to find packing peanuts to put in this. I need to keep it light. I was going to fill about halfway to a third of the way full and mix up the soil to put in it. Couldn't find packing peanuts, which is a good thing. They're bad for the environment, so that's fine. So instead I'm using lava rock. This seems like an obvious solution. People put rocks in the bottom of their planters all the time, but rock does still wick and retain some moisture, but it's what I gotta do. So I wanted to keep it also relatively cheap. This is a used pot. I have cleaned it and sanitized it. I know it looks kind of dusty and musty, but it's clean. Oh, camera strap, get out of the view. I'm just going to go ahead and take this lava rock, cut the bags, and fill it up as high as I think I need to. All right, and there it is. I ended up only having to use four of the six bags that I bought, which is fine. There does still need to be some depth in there. Now I'm going to go ahead and start mixing up my soil. I often have trouble finding a pre-made cactus potting mix that I really like. They usually just hold too much moisture, and not only that, but I'm going to need a lot. So just to save money, I'm just using Miracle-Gro, and I'm amending it with some orchid bark, sand, and, um, turfess to help improve the drainage. I may add some perlite too. We'll see what it looks like when I get it mixed in there. There we go, now I have that all in there. I'm just going to go ahead and blend it together. See how I like it once it's all nice, mixed up, and well combined. And I almost forgot the sand. This is actually more of a coarse gravel, but it's going to serve the same purpose. All right, now that's all mixed up, I'm just picking it up, giving it a nice squeeze. I want to make sure that it falls apart very, very quickly. This is how we know that it's not going to retain too much moisture. And, uh, I think that's probably just about right. I would also normally add N.A.'s full-release tomato fertilizer into this. Cactus and succulents tend to really enjoy tomato fertilizer. It has a nice level of calcium in it, helps build rigid, strong cell walls. But I, I, I don't have any. I thought I did. Okay, look like a cactus wearing a scarf. That is my support, using an old towel, wrap around there so I don't get stabbed by the spines. This big guy here is a Sirius Peruvianus, and yeah, that's going to kind of be the focal point of this planter. I have a feeling it's going to give me trouble when it comes to standing up, but hey, that's what garden stakes are for, right? Okay, and there we go. So I use that towel kind of as a support to help hold it up at the same time I'm getting that pot off. Really comes in nifty. Okay, so I did go ahead and I actually added a little bit more sand and perlite to this mix because it was still clumping a little bit. I want the water to move through this quickly. Also, you may have noticed I didn't really do much to rough up the root mass on the Peruvianus. That's really just because it wasn't, didn't seem very root bound. I can see pieces coming out, so I think it's okay. All right, and next up there's an agave here. Don't know what kind. It was just sold as an assorted. I, I've tried to figure it out. I mean, it's obviously, it's a variegated agave. There are a lot out there that look like it on Google images, but this has like a very creamy and green variegation to it. Not very white, not very yellow. If anybody does know, fill me in. I'd appreciate it. I'm going to put that right there. Look at that. All kinds of different bits of roots and things ready to come up and sucker on there. Even some coming up on the side. That's pretty cool. This is going to end up being probably a little bit too prolific for this pot. I am going to go ahead and gently loosen the roots up on this one. Make sure that these pieces here that are going to put up new agaves are not pointing down. Also planting it at a slight angle. Okay, so there's that. And then next to it, I also have a golden barrel cactus and a hardy agave, agave pariae. And I am being careful as I'm doing this to try and make sure that the tops of the root balls are all pretty much at the same level. One of my concerns with the agave was I wasn't sure there'd be enough room in here, but I think it'll fit, at least for now. Eventually it'll grow and I'll have to do something different. Ah, and this agave also. Lots of new growth coming up. Okay, when these were in the ground, it was pretty much set up just like this. Yeah, it did not bother me at all that there wasn't symmetry. But as soon as I put them in a pot, it's driving me crazy. But it is what it is. I think it'll still be pretty. All right, in the back, I'm going to put this euphorbia. This particular variety, which is the fire sticks, these really don't mind more irrigation, so I'm going to have to keep an eye on it just to be safe. It may end up needing to be pulled out of here where I can give it a little bit more water. But they are very, very drought tolerant. All right, I actually think I'm going to have to mix up a little bit more soil. I was able to divide that up and just put a piece of it back there, which works well. Also, it's a good idea to wear gloves when handling the euphorbias. Their sap can be irritating to the skin. It's toxic. I just, I was very careful. Now let's add something to the front. I'm just going to use these portulacas. It's an annual. They are thirsty. They're very upset with me. I un-potted these a little while ago to prep for the video. But these, they have nice red color pinky flowers on them, and they'll spill out nicely over the front of the pot. Okay, now I'm just going to go ahead and mix up a little bit more soil, top dress this, and get it moved. Basically done. Now I'm just going to go ahead and water this in. I would not typically use water to flush out the center of anything rosette shaped or really any cactus, period. But guys, it is very hot and very dry out. I'm not very concerned. I'll make sure that water doesn't sit in there. It should be just fine. Otherwise, I would use like a paintbrush or something to get in there and get the dirt that's fallen into all those nooks and crannies. Now for those fun finishing touches. I'm going to top dress this with paver base, which is just small rocks, chips of rock. I use this in a lot of my bonsais and other things I do. It's just, it's cheap and it looks pretty natural. That's pretty much the only reason I use it. It is a little bit dusty, so it wouldn't hurt to rinse it before you use it. Probably should have done that. I also like to go ahead and make sure that I have some type of gravel on top of the soil when I do a cactus or succulent planter, mostly just because that helps separate the soil from the base of the plants so that if there's moisture in there, that the rocks will dry out faster than the dirt. Just less chance of rot that way. Now I'm going to add some rocks, maybe just one. Isn't that beautiful? Go ahead and put this right in here. I changed my mind. I don't want these rocks in there. Just doesn't look right. Okay, that's much better. There it is, all done and horribly backlit. Peruvianus is so tall I can't even get the entire thing into frame. Despite not having the symmetry, I still really like the way these guys all play together. I will be keeping an eye on everything to make sure that the moisture is even. Like, you know, this barrel cactus probably not going to want quite as much water as say the Euphorbia in the back. Or even this Peruvianus. Sometimes they like more water, as long as the water, or as long as the soil is draining sharply. Sharply meaning that I basically, when I'm watering this, I want to see the water move right through it. I don't want it to pool for very long. I want it going right through there. Now, I wish the Puerto Lacos were opened when I did this, but they have a bedtime and they're mad at me. They close their leaves and their flowers in the evening. Ultimately, this pot is going to end up going in here. In that center, I'm going to be containerizing everything. That's going to be a separate video setting up a whole entire desert garden. Can't have these guys in the ground. This is all drainage. There really isn't even any soil down there. There's French drains. I can't dig very deep. I picked up some of these big shallow bull planters. There's one right there. If you're interested in those, I'll be talking about those more in the vlog that comes out after this video. And chances are I'm going to be finishing this up in the vlog for next week, not the one that comes out after this one. Because there's just, there's a lot of stuff to plant here. I'm going to fill the other ones with Echeverias, Sempervivums, Euphorbias, Agaves. I'm going to do some hardy ones with the Apuntias. It's going to be a lot. Ultimately, I just kind of want this to be my little desert area over here against this wall. I keep having to pick this guy up. I'm going be making sure to give this guy at least six to eight hours a day of sun, which is why I have these planted over here along this wall. That's pretty much the only spot I have where there's that much sun. So yeah, stay tuned for more videos where I finish up this whole entire cactus, potted cactus garden, container cactus garden? What am I supposed to call this? I will post pictures on Instagram when these guys start to open up and flower and look nice, and they'll be in upcoming videos as well, more than likely the vlogs. Pardon how backlit this is. It's just the wrong time of day. I hope everybody's doing well. As I had mentioned, you can go ahead and follow my social media down below. If you follow me, I'll follow you back. We look at your plant pictures. It's fun seeing what everybody's doing in their gardens. Don't forget to leave the video a thumbs up. It helps a lot. I appreciate every single one of those. Thank you so much. Subscribe as well. It's actually down there. Upload multiple times a week. Hit the notification bell if you want to know when I release new videos. Otherwise, YouTube won't tell you. And I think, like I said before, there will be much more about this particular planter in the vlog that comes out after this video, if you're interested. I really hope everybody's doing well. And as always, everybody, most importantly, keep on growing. Bye-bye.