Potted fun
You must be careful when doing this because tins are very sharp and you can easily cut yourself.
Hopefully, by now you have scoured your neighbourhood for succulents and have a couple of little leaves drying out on your windowsill.
If you can’t find any, buy one from your local nursery and make many.
If you missed last week’s blog about growing succulents, you can always catch up on the website – sibo.co.za
Obviously, you are going to need pots for your little plants.
I’m not too sure why, but succulents seem to grow very well in old tins.
Any tins.
Also read: Sibo impresses at African Health Expo
My friend Ginny uses huge coffee tins for bigger plants, and dog food, baked beans, pilchards, tuna… basically, any size tin available for the smaller ones.
“But Sibo, tins look horrible!” I hear you say.
True, but there are ways of making them look interesting.
One way is to paint the tin using a mixture of grout and tile adhesive.
This sounds fancy, but it’s relatively cheap and goes a long way.
Grout also comes in different colours and if you mix it into a sloppy wet mixture, you can simply paint it onto your tin.
Usually, two coats look better than one, but make sure you let the tin dry properly between coats.
You can also cover the tin with material.
This works well if the tin is going to be used inside and the plant gets watered carefully.
Eventually, the material will get all yukky at the bottom if it stands in water.
Also read: Write it all down says Sibo
Another way, once you’ve painted the tin, is to use strong scissors and carefully cut strips (1cm wide x 2cm long) all the way around the top of your tin.
Use pliers to curl those strips in towards the tin (check out the picture).
You must be careful when doing this because tins are very sharp and you can easily cut yourself.
It does look pretty though, and it has the added bonus of stopping snails and slugs from climbing up and snacking on the plant.
Succulents have such shallow root systems, so you don’t need to have lots of soil.
Broken crockery can also be used – get creative.
Just remember to put stones in the bottom of your container before putting the soil in, so there’s good drainage.
If you are using tins, punch holes in the bottom of them with a sharp nail.
Start recycling trash into treasure people.
Have fun.
Sibo
