The Gardening Gangster
by Ana Morlier, The Crazy Plant Lady
Living Centerpieces
Happy Thanksgiving month, everyone! Whether you’re hosting or attending a Thanksgiving feast, it’s important to thank others and encourage the festive Thanksgiving mood. Centerpieces fully set the tone of your Thanksgiving feast. Consider this: Would you rather display thoughtful decorations that invite your guests with cozy yet elegant vibes or decorations that will make you feel like you are sitting at the kid’s table again? Relatives will quickly regret their previous comments over the state of your garden with the stunning living centerpieces listed below. Succulents, bursting with color, will present their vibrant colors and extraordinary shapes for much longer than wilting store-bought flowers. A quick Pinterest scroll may inspire some ideas, but the picture-perfect versions are much harder, in reality, to put together. Here are three easy centerpiece ideas that will perfectly charm your guests and start your Thanksgiving out beautifully. They also make great gifts!
Pumpkin Planters
Materials:
A pumpkin (with seeds and pulp removed)
Your favorite succulents (For fall colors, use Graptosedum ‘California Sunset’, ‘Golden Sedum’ Echeveria ‘Orange Monroe’, Desert Cabbage, Stick on fire, Jellybean plant, or Red Burst)
Plant succulents (and dirt) in a container, then place the container in your pumpkin. You can hide the empty space with leaves or shrubbery you find outside. A plastic or ceramic pumpkin/turkey-shaped planter works just as well. Simply plant succulents in the planter, and you’ve got yourself a centerpiece!
Turkey Table-Toppers
Materials:
Metal tin or can (or another container that hot glue, regular glue, or tape can adhere to)
Wide Popsicle stick (It should look like a peanut, but regular popsicle sticks work too. You can also cut out a larger peanut shape from cardstock)
Large, spiky succulents that can easily fill the top of your container (such as Aloe vera, Haworthia, Echeveria, and Agave succulents) with dirt
Hot glue or tape
Markers
Googly eyes
Insert dirt and plant your succulents in your selected container. Next, hot glue your googly eyes to the popsicle stick, drawing on a beak and a gizzard underneath the eyes. Hot glue or tape this stick to the front of your container. Now you have yourself a turkey centerpiece!
Rustic Burlap Planter
Materials:
Glass jar
Twine (ribbon works just as well)
Burlap (other cloth can be used)
Dirt
Hot glue gun or tape
Red air plants and succulents such as Echeveria agavoides ‘Lipstick,’ Dragon’s Blood Sedum, Sempervivum ‘hens and chicks,’ Sticks on Fire euphorbia, or the jelly bean plant
Add dirt and plant your succulent in the jar. Cut burlap so that it covers the circumference of the jar. Hot glue the cut burlap to the jar. Tie on twine or ribbon. There you have it! An elegant, yet homey, fall centerpiece.
I hope these ideas will inspire you to create other homemade decorations. Your imagination is the limit! Remember to not only thank the special people in your life, but also the seedlings, growers, and workers that make your Thanksgiving meal possible. Stay warm, happy, and healthy, and thank YOU for reading my column!
From: Marcel Iseli-Plantophiles, Balcony Garden Web, Kat McCarthy-The Succulent Eclectic, Succulents Box, Jacolyn Murphy, Lindsay Hyland-Urban Organic Yield
