Here in Australia, our summers can be quite brutal. A few years ago we had temperatures between 40 and 48 degrees Celsius for weeks at a time. And sad to say one of my tree ferns died even though it is in a flower bed under my pergola with shade cloth over the top. I was too lazy to try and dig it out so I thought I would try and made a feature from the stump. I know succulents do need lots of soil or water so I thought a succulent planter would look great.

Step 1: Prune the Tree

Start by trimming all the branches off and cutting all the stalks to a useable length.

Step 2: Line the Gaps

Even though succulents don't need much water, when you do water them you will most likely wash away the soil. To prevent this from happening, I used the coconut fibre lining you can buy for hanging baskets to keep the soil in place.

Step 3: Cut the Lining

I found it was easier to cut the lining into small triangles first. I pushed the point down in between the stalks, bending the end up to make a pocket for the soil.

Step 4: Add Your Soil

I used soil suitable for succulents and pushed it down into the lining. To add the plants, I used a stick to make a hole in the soil and pushed my succulents down into the soil. I did not plant them too close together because succulents multiply very quickly. I water them once a week using a fine mist on my hose pipe nozzle.

Step 5: Adding Bark

To finish off the look I added some new bark to my flowerbed to hide the irrigation pipes. And we are done. I hope you liked my tree fern planter. And if so please vote for it in the gardening competition.