Upcycled Summer Succulents Planter

Summertime is the perfect time to bring some of the outdoors indoors. I have an ever-growing collection of hen and chicks succulents in one of our flower beds, so a few of them now have a new home in our dining room's bay window.

With just a few bits you probably have around the house already, you can make this sweet picket fence planter, too. Wash an empty tuna can thoroughly in soap and water. I don't know if succulents like the smell of old, rotten fish, but I sure don't. Most clothes pins are the perfect size to cover the outside of the tin can. You can use a small flower pot if you have one, but a trimmed-down paper cup will work, too.

Clip the clothespins all the way around the lip of the can.

Because of the clips' two pieces, you'll have an inside ring to keep the pot in place and an outside ring to decorate.

If you're using a cup, make a line around the edge of the inner ring so you'll have a guide line to cut with.

Cut just underneath the line so the cup will tuck in and not be seen.

Fill the trimmed cup with potting soil and add your precious succulents. Decorate the outside of the fencing however you'd like. I used some baker's twine wrapped through the clothespins, and you could add twine, burlap or felt flowers - whatever makes you and your fence happy!

The hens eventually grow some chicks, and then you'll be able to replant the hens in the garden and leave the chicks here to get all big and healthy. Choose smaller succulents so they'll have plenty of room to breathe and grow.