Succulents are some of the most popular indoor plant varieties for beginner and experienced gardeners alike. Despite the specific conditions that most succulents evolved in, they’re extremely adaptable to indoor life, drought-tolerant, and low maintenance. We will walkthrough how to overcome the challenges to make an indoor succulent garden.
If you’ve ever wondered if you can grow a garden indoors then look no further. Today, we’re going to break down everything you need to know about succulent gardens. We’ll make our way from water and light needs to potting choices and nutrients. But first, let’s break down the basic concepts we’ll need to know.
What are succulents?
There are many ways to answer this question, but the simplest answer is usually the best. According to Britannica, succulents are:
“…any plant with thick fleshy tissues adapted to water storage.”
That definition also expands to plants like cacti that store water in their stems because they don’t have leaves. Ultimately, any succulent you pick up from a nursery or store has evolved over thousands of years to retain water as much as possible.
As indoor gardeners, our job is to replicate the ideal growing conditions that plants evolved in. For example, most common herbs come from the Mediterranean. This is why rosemary, basil, cilantro, lavender, mint, thyme, and sage can seem so different while sharing the same conditional needs (water, light, soil, nutrients).
So what kind of environment did succulents develop in? More importantly, how does this evolutionary history affect planning for indoor succulent gardens?
Things you need to know about growing succulents
Succulents developed on multiple continents at the same time, but they shared many environmental factors. Succulents grow and thrive in arid or semi-arid area. This makes them perfect for apartments and other smaller living spaces where you don’t have a greenhouse! While this mostly means deserts, it included other areas that were prone to long drought periods where there would be very little available water. As a result, they developed the thickened leaves and stems that allowed them to store water through these periods – much like how camels developed their humps.
Funny enough, this is the number one reason so many gardeners have horror stories about killing their succulents by overwatering.
Overwatering happens when succulents absorb more water than they can store in their specialized leaf cells. This excess water can often burst or “split” a leaf, leaving it open to infection or leaf rot. Even when it’s not so extreme, water can run down the plant and pool in the crevices, inviting common water-borne bacteria and speeding up leaf rot, especially in an indoor succulent garden.
As scary as that sounds, it’s easily avoidable. Succulents will always fare better with less care than more. Unlike most plants, succulents will survive just fine if you forget to water them for a week longer than planned.
What type of succulent garden is right for my home?
When we talk about the “types” of succulent gardens available, we’re mostly talking about placement, potting, and arrangement. You can grow an indoor succulent garden in any container, from a salad bowl to the biggest planter box you can find.
Potted and bedded are the two most common succulent arrangements. These are loose terms, but they refer to how you store your growing medium (i.e. how you keep your soil indoors). For smaller areas, a single pot might work better than a bed.
Bed-style succulent garden
A bed-style succulent garden is grown in a large single container. This requires a little more space, but it can work out cheaper than buying multiple pots ((depending on the material). In a bed-style succulent garden, all of your succulents will grow in the same soil. This means that you have to plan which succulents to grow together, as they’ll all need to be compatible in your indoor succulent garden.
Compatibility for succulents grown in the same soil comes down to watering needs, light preference, and the nutrients available in the soil. You’ll also need to factor in growing seasons. Some succulents, like Crassula (jades) and Gasteria (ox-tongue), are winter growers. On the other hand, summer growers like Graptosedum (California sunset) prefer the warmer seasons.
Winter succulents will be dormant in the summer, which usually means they’ll require even less water. Summer succulents will need more water during their summer growing period, as well as nutrients to promote growth. As a rule of thumb, only plant succulents that follow the same growth cycle in the same soil.
So, some benefits to a bed-style succulent garden are:
- Cheaper containers overall
- Less maintenance (only one set of soil to care for)
- Beautiful arrangement possibilities
Some considerations to keep in mind are:
- Requires more space to set up
- The arrangement requires planning
- Some succulents are incompatible in a single bed
Potted succulent garden
As the name suggests, a potted succulent garden is one where your plants are arranged in individual planting pots. Plant pots come in many shapes, sizes, and materials, but there are a few things to look out for. Before you consider any of that, you want to decide on drainage holes for proper water management for your indoor succulent garden.
Drainage holes are the little holes at the base of plant pots. They help access water filter out of the soil, greatly reducing the risk of root rot and mold growing in the soil. Ironically, indoor gardening is the main reason some pots don’t have drainage holes, as this can lead to messy dripping, especially if pots are placed on easily stained surfaces like wood. But that’s also why some pots with drainage holes also come with matching saucers to catch access water.
Drainage and the impact.
For succulent gardens, we have to consider what this means for the plant’s roots. Succulents, like most plants from dryer climates, prefer loose, well-drained soil, and drainage holes are a big part of that. If you find pots with drainage holes but no saucers, you can use any small plate, so long as it’s’ larger than the base of the pot and can hold at least half a cup of excess water.
We’ll touch on the types of pots available below. The important thing to note now is that potted succulent gardens offer you an incredible amount of flexibility. You can even make use of tiered surfaces like a countertop and a windowsill.
Also, treat them like mini bed-style gardens and create different arrangements I each pot. You could have a “winter pot” of winter succulents grown in a single pot and vice versa for summer varieties.
If you’re afraid of making mistakes, potted succulent gardens can make it easier to “fail forward.” If you mess up one succulent, only that pot is affected. You can still carry those lessons to the others in your indoor succulent garden!
So, some advantages of potted succulent gardens are:
- Incredibly flexible placement
- Requires less space
- Modular design (one part doesn’t directly affect the others)
- Infinitely scalable (the more pots, the better!)
Some considerations for potted succulent gardens are:
- Can cost a little more to set up (depending on pots)
- Drainage needs to be managed for each pot
Light requirements
Whichever garden style you go for, the lighting requirements will have a lot of overlap. Light preference may change from plant to plant.
For example, vine-like succulents like Hoya (wax plant) and Senecio (string of pearls) can tolerate partial shade. They can even prefer it when too much sun damages their more supple stems. Night-blooming succulents like Hylocereus (dragon fruit – that’s right, it’s a cactus) are also shade tolerant.
Now, there’s a reason we say shade-tolerant and not shade-loving. Some plants tend to react badly to too much sun. A common bad reaction to overexposure is “burnt” or browning leaf tips. Some shade-tolerant plants may still prefer full sun but can grow in shadier spots.
Even shade-tolerant succulents need at least some sun for photosynthesis. Ideally, indoor succulents should be placed somewhere that gets 46 hours off sun every day. South-facing windows receive the most sun in the Northern Hemisphere. North-facing windows are best in the Southern Hemisphere.
If your indoor succulent garden can’t receive enough natural light, you can use grow lights to bridge the gap. Some of the best grow lights for succulents include:
- LED grow lights (energy efficient, quality lighting)
- Fluorescent grow lights (serviceable, more affordable option)
- HPS grow lights (produces red spectrum light – the best for the flowering stage)
Water requirements
If you’re relying on natural light to grow your succulent garden, then you don’t have to think about how the seasons affect the light requirements. After all, plants evolved to seasonal conditions. This is why some go dormant in weaker light conditions (summer succulents), and some go dormant in stronger light conditions (winter succulents).
However, water is the number one thing to match with your plants’ growing season. Dormant plants use less water, which means they need to be watered less. The general rule is to halve a succulent’s water requirements in its dormant season. You should find these instructions on any seed packet, and most seedlings will be sold with them.
Succulents are very good at storing the water they need, and in an arid environment, they can rely on nature to get rid of the excess moisture. Intense sunlight and wind evaporate the moisture sitting in the topsoil while loose soil drains the rest below the root system. This stops plants from getting “wet feed” which can damage roots and create an environment for disease.
In an indoor succulent garden, you have to rely on well-draining soil and drainage holes to simulate this effect. The good news is you’ll also be responsible for simulating rain via watering. This gives you more control over your succulent garden’s water intake, which makes things much easier to manage.
Ideally, succulents will want water every other week in their growing season. This means only watering them once every 3-5 weeks in their dormant season.
Picking the right pots
Potted succulent gardens need a little more planning, and often that starts with the pots themselves. Ceramic, terracotta, and plastic are the most common materials used for indoor planting pots. Each has its properties that you may want to consider.
Plastic is by far the cheapest option, so it’s great if you don’t want to invest too much in pots. Of the three main materials, it’s also the only one that won’t break if it gets knocked off a window sill, although sweeping up potting soil is always messy business!
Terracotta pots are porous, which means they leak moisture out of their sides which eventually evaporates. This is a good thing! It means these pots drain excess moisture through the drainage hole in the bottom and its sides, simulating how moisture filers out through topsoil.
Most decorative pots are made of ceramic, which allows for interesting shapes and a glossy finish. Ceramic pots are the most likely to come without drainage holes since they’re designed almost like vases. Some of them have holes and most can be drilled into with the proper technique. Always check beforehand!
Soil for succulents
More important than the pot is the soil you keep in it. Succulents will grow perfectly fine in most commercial potting soil mixes and even homemade compost. Avoid heavy, poorly-draining soil that has a lot of clay. Not only does this soil provide more resistance to growing roots – but it’s also more likely to give your plants wet feet.
Look for potting soil with a good blend of perlite, bark, and peat moss. Perlite aerates the soil and keeps it loose for drainage. Bark is organic matter which helps with healthy water retention. Peat moss retains moisture and nutrients while also breaking down the soil for aeration.
Speaking of nutrients, some potting soil will be mixed with slow-release fertilizer, and some won’t be. In the case of the latter, you’ll need to manually fertilize your succulent garden every few months. The brand of fertilizer you use doesn’t matter much but pay attention to the nutrient ratio on the packaging.
Succulents prefer an even N-P-K ratio of 20-20-20. This means 20 parts nitrogen, 20 parts phosphorus, and 20 parts potassium.
Start growing your succulent garden today
Hopefully this information helps you on your way to creating your very own succulent garden! Remember: mistakes are okay, especially with succulents – they’re very forgiving so long as they’re not overwatered! You can grow a succulent in any space.