Succulent Dough Bowl

I am getting married in 10 days! And who would have guessed it but I am using succulents throughout the wedding decor! I have been growing succulents for 1.5 years now (only engaged 1 year :/ ) in preparation for the wedding! So now is the time to start making the decorations! I am going to begin by making a succulent dough bowl centerpiece that will be sitting on the welcome table at our reception.

Here is a link to the video of me putting this together and a couple tips! Please go check it out and give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you haven’t yet! {Comment questions for an upcoming road trip turned Q & A!!}

Succulent Dough Bowl Materials

• Plastic tarp/lining
• Dough Bowl
• Succulent/cactus soil
• Succulents of your choice-I personally love a variety
• Garden Syringe
• Accessories if you want them-little bike, candle holder, etc…

Prep of the Succulent Dough Bowl

Since I wanted to preserve the dough bowl, I laid down a layer of plastic tarp cut to size to protect the wood from any water and dirt.

**Because there are no drainage holes, water sparingly and with the garden syringe in order to control water flow**

Then I filled the dough bowl with succulent soil up to a couple of inches below the rim of the dough bowl.

Now the succulent dough bowl is prepped and the fun part can begin 🙂

Designing the Succulent Dough Bowl

For my accessories, I chose a large candle holder/vase that was a pretty silver foil design. I decided to use this as the focal point of the succulent dough bowl.

Next, I had to decide how it was going to be arranged. For my project, only one side was going to be seen, therefore I built up the back a little taller and positioned the candle holder more towards the back. Whereas if this project was going to be seen from every angle, I would have wanted to have the tallest succulents in the middle next to the candle holder and work out going smaller.

Include a variety of succulents in your arrangement. Look at how the colors compliment each other. I liked the look of a drastic change in color from dark green to purple or purple to lime green. These color contrasts added interest into the design.

Forming Fake Succulent Clusters

I love the look of succulent clusters, as in multiple succulent heads from one plant. My succulents were just starting to propagate this way but I had a lot of babies I had propagated from the leaf which made it easy to fake a cluster.

Plant the largest succulent upright.

Position the same succulents of a smaller size angled into the base of the large succulent and lay multiple around the large succulent.

Positioning the littler succulents this way will give the illusion they are coming as offshoots of the larger succulent. You can see an example of this in the picture to the right of the purple neon breakers in the left hand bottom corner.

Add Blank Space to your Succulent Dough Bowl

After you have added most of the succulents to the middle of the arrangement, cut off the plastic liner and leave 1 inch of space above the soil. Continue planting out and if a succulent is near the edge, fold the plastic over and cover it with the succulent.

Add rocks to your succulent dough bowl to add a break for the eye from a busy piece. In mine, I had all sorts of natural colors with a line of sparkly white to form a little “road” for my small bike to sit on. This allowed for the viewer to see the bike without being overwhelmed with the succulents and made it look clean.

Caring for the Succulent Dough Bowl

Before adding any succulents, check for any bugs and remove any dead or unsightly leaves from the succulent.

To water, use a garden syringe to control water flow and point the water directly at the root ball. Unlike normal succulent care, do not soak the soil in this arrangement since there is no drainage. Instead, water when the soil is dry and only at the base of each plant.

To have the most colorful arrangements, place the arrangement under a grow light when not in use for best growth and color.