Magnetic Cork Planters

I am a huge fan of succulents, always have been. They remind me of the holidays spent with my grandparents in the house in the countryside where the succulents around the stone staircase helped create a mysterious atmosphere, at least that's what it felt like when I was a child. That's probably why I like to keep the succulents around. When my indoors succulents have "babies" and I don't have a place for them (and it's too cold to plant them outside), I find little fun places to put them. The cork planters as fridge magnets are one of them.

- cork stopper

- some soil (about 1 teaspoon for one cork stopper)

- tiny succulent

- electric hand drill machine + this drill bit (if you don't have one, you can use a non-electric screwdriver or any other sharp tool, although the work will be much harder, it will take longer and the drill machine gives much better and smoother result).

- small magnet

- epoxy glue

You need to drill the biggest opening possible without breaking the stopper to be able to give your succulent as much soil as possible. So go slowly, first drill not too deep and with a circular motion make the hole as wide as possible. Ho deeper little by little. In my experience the walls of the cork stopper can get up to about 2 mm (what you see in the pictures it 3 mm and a little more).

What I do is I press the drill on the sides and turn the stopper very slowly.

Put a little epoxy glue on the magnet and place the magnet on a flat surface. Then place the cork stopper on the magnet, I put mine so that the magnet is in the middle of the stopper. Secure the stopper so it doesn't slide from the magnet. I place a glass on both sides of the stopper. Let the glue dry properly.

Put a little soil at the bottom. Then insert the succulent in and put small amounts of soil around it and press it well. I use the thin end of a chopstick and my fingers once the soil reaches the top of the stopper. The soil should be a little wet (the soil in the picture is too wet which isn't a problem but it's easier to work with a soil that's a little drier than that). Let the planter stand until the next day, the soil will sit a little. Then you can clean any excess soil.

You're done and now you can your tiny planter(s) on the fridge.

Watering the succulents in these planters is very easy. Just take them off the fridge and under a small stream of water until you see the soil is soaked. You can also water them with a spray bottle or drop by drop with a syringe, in this case, you don't need to take the planter off the fridge.