Faux Succulent Vertical Hanging Wall Garden

Plants you don’t have to water? Yes! Create succulents out of felt and pinecones to create this Faux Succulent Vertical Hanging Wall Garden

I keep seeing these gorgeous vertical hanging wall gardens. But there is one problem. I don’t have the greenest thumb. I know that succulents are easier to take care of than other plants. But even when I do my best the kids knock them over, or the cats chew on them, or something seems to happen.

To add a pop of green garden to my home I thought I’d try a faux succulent vertical garden. Using something I had never thought of before as a supply for making faux succulents, pinecones.

Faux Succulents Supplies

• Pinecones
• Heavy Duty Pruning Shears
• Acrylic Paint – in shades of green
• Craft Felt – in shades of green
• Frame
• Chicken wire
• Staple gun
• Wire cutters
• Florist wire
• Hot glue

DIY Pinecone Succulents

I have 5 pine trees in my yard so I’m always excited to come up with a new craft that uses the pinecones. I went out to my yard and gathered up a variety of shapes and sizes of pinecones. Before crafting with your pinecones it’s important to prepare them by baking them.

Line a baking sheet with some aluminum foil and put the pinecones in at 250 degrees for about an hour. This dries out the pinecones, causing them to open up, and eliminiating anything that happens to be living inside the pinecone that you wouldn’t want in your faux garden.

Once the pinecones are finished baking you can cut them. Initially I just wanted to cut off the bottom to turn upside down and use for the faux succulent. But after cutting a few the middle started to look really interesting as well. So there are some pinecone bottoms and some middles, even a pinecone top mixed in.

All of the pinecone pieces that I thought resembled a succulent got painted. Use a variety of shades of green, and you can even use a little blue to give the pinecone succulents some depth. Once they are all painted leave them on the baking sheet to completely dry overnight.

DIY Felt Succulents

While the pinecones are drying you can move on to faux succulent type number two. Having two different types of faux succulents really adds to the variety of colors and variety of textures, adding to the visual interest of your finished garden.

I used three main shapes for the leaves on my felt succulents. Within each shape I cut three different sizes of leaves. I also cut a thin strip of felt that I rolled up and used as the center of each felt succulent.

The rolled up piece of felt went in the center surrounded by the smallest leaf size. Then I added some medium sized leaves and finally the largest leaf size around the outside. I varied the number of leaves I used and how tightly I glued them together. This created a handful of felt succulents that were all different.

Faux Succulent Garden

With your two types of faux succulents finished it’s time to work on the frame for your vertical garden.

I found this frame at the thrift store and I also picked up some chicken wire from the hardware store.

I loved the detailing on the frame, and I love using gold pieces in my decorating.

You’ll need wire cutters to trim the chicken wire and then a staple gun to attach the wire to the back of the frame.

Staple the wire all around the backside of the frame. You can also attach a wall hanging piece if your frame doesn’t already have one.

When the pinecones are dry you can start placing them in your garden. Use craft wire wrapped around the pinecones to attach them to the chicken wire. I added all the pinecone succulents in first and then filled in with the felt succulents.

Since the felt pieces were more flexible it was easier to use them to fill in the openings left by the pinecones. I used hot glue to attach the felt succulents.

My finished Faux Succulent Vertical Hanging Wall Garden! I’m ready to hang it up on the wall. No watering required!

Want more DIY Succulents? See my DIY Cactus in a bowl made from t-shirt yarn