Fall is my favorite season. And my favorite thing about fall? Pumpkins. Not just PSLs, but the actual fruit. Growing up in the ‘burbs, I loved going to Lyman Orchards to pick out pumpkins. By the end of the trip, I’d pick out every pumpkin I could carry. I wanted to carve them all! To further my pumpkin addiction, I made these adorable pumpkin succulent centerpieces.
Call me crafty. Fatima first realized how crafty I was when we were resident assistants. Since then, I’ve amazed her by what we can accomplish together when we put our creative minds to work. Like baking, crafting (and building Lego castles) is a stress reliever. September was emotionally exhausting. I needed to start off October with my mind on something else. We stumbled across these pumpkin centerpieces on Sand and Sisal and Simply Happenstance. Fatima really liked them, but didn’t know if we’d be able to pull it off. But we did. They were a lot easier to make than I thought!
Pumpkin Succulent Centerpieces: A How-To
What you need:
- Faux or real pumpkins
- Terra-cotta clay pots
- Succulents (all different sizes and colors)
- Cactus potting soil
- Moss
- Carving knife (I used one of those tools you get with a pumpkin carving kit)
- Hot glue gun
1. You’ll need to size up your opening for the terra-cotta pot. Place the pot upside down over the top of the pumpkin. Draw a ring around the pot.
2. We opted for faux pumpkins from Michaels. These faux pumpkins are foam all the way through, so they required a little bit of elbow grease to carve them out. I punctured holes along the pencil line before I started to carve. This made it easier to create the circle around the top. I used a spoon to break through the foam and carved a hole big enough for the pot.
3. Time to plant! Remove your succulents from their containers and shake off the excess dirt. Add potting soil to the bottom of the pot and begin to plant your succulents. Once they’re planted water them and let drain.
4. We let our pots drain and dry out overnight just to be safe. Since we were using faux pumpkins we weren’t sure if the foam would hold up to the moisture. Place your pot in the pumpkin – should fit snug.
5. Fire up your hot glue gun and take out your moss. Start finding pieces that would work well around the top of the pumpkins. Using small dabs of hot glue, add the moss around the rim of the terra-cotta pot, but glue directly to the pumpkin.
Voila, you did it!
