Chicken Planters

At the old house we had chickens and consequently we had a variety of feeders and waterers.  When we moved, they can with us, but the new city does not allow chickens on a lot our size.  They require you to have at least an acre (which is ridiculous because chickens do not need that much space, aren't that noisy, and don't really smell bad) before you can have any chickens.  Up until recently, all of these chicken feeders and waterers had been sitting in the shed.  Over the winter the Plant Geek propagated succulents...lots and lots of succulents.

A small look at the winter greenhouse

After taking care of lots of succulents in nursery pots for a few weeks I decided that some needed to be used.  I have lots of interested in planter pictures saved on Pinterest, so I decided to use some of that inspiration and got busy!

My first planter was created form one of the large chicken feeders we have.  We actually have a larger one, but it seemed unreasonably large for what I wanted to do.  Once I filled it with soil, it was just a mater of picking out what I wanted to use.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do in the top, but other family member had ideas and were willing to help.  We stuffed this feeder full of cute little succulents, and two not so small Mother-of-Thousands.

It turned out really well and will love even better as it fills in, especially since a few of these seemed to shed off their little plantlets while we worked with them.

My chicken feeder vision didn't really include a final location in the garden.  For now it's living in a really sunny (even though it doesn't look like it here) hook that used to hold a tropical hanging basket.

It's right by our closet door.  That's, right our bedroom closet has a door to the outside.  Near as we can figure a former owner used it as an office and what is now a very compact bathroom was the original closet.  Please ignore how badly our house needs to be painted.  It's on the list for the fall.

The second planter was created for a chick feeder.  Their feeders tend to be more trough-like to make it easier for them to eat.  I've used this one a center piece on the dinning table before, so I know it would eventually live on the patio table.  Since this was the second planter, it didn't get the first choice of plants.

Still, there were plenty left to pick from.  I'll probably use more to fill some other containers, including a pot we have that's shaped like a chicken.

It is a perfect fit for our shabby chic patio table (that used to be our kitchen table in an old house).  A container like this would honestly not work for me on a table we used a lot.  I find them to be in the way.  However, this tables is in full sun during the dinner hour, so we rarely sit at it.  Since it gets used so infrequently, the container is very welcome.

I'll keep you all updated if any more succulents get planted up.  I wish the two trays int eh picture were all that is left, but that is not the case.  I need to go back to my Pinterest board for inspiration I guess.