DIY Topiary Cat With Succulents

Here’s a fun little DIY project, just in time for your summer garden: create your own topiary cat with succulents!

By Timi Schmidt

The upcoming summer season means that your garden will start looking its best, given that you spend the time and energy on it. You have surely already started working in your garden, ensuring that all the flowers and plants are ready to thrive during the warm season—so why not go the extra mile and add some decorations too?

Topiaries are becoming increasingly popular, ranging from simple shapes to large extravagant sculptures. Creating a topiary or living sculpture may seem like a project that requires some serious skill. However, the good news is that it doesn’t have to!

The following project by Wire Fence shows how to make a DIY Topiary Cat, which could be a unique addition to your garden or porch. And you’ll find that it’s fairly easy to create as well!

What you’ll need:

• Pliers;
• Wire cutters;
• Protective gloves;
• Chicken wire;
• Succulents;
• Moss;
• Multipurpose potting mix;
• Coco basket liners.

Step 1. 

Gather your supplies. Make sure you have everything you will need for the topiary before getting started.

Step 2.

Roll out your chicken wire mesh and cut out the shapes shown on the photo above. You will need two pieces of each shape.

Step 3.

Connect the identical shapes by twisting the ends together using pliers and protective gloves.

Step 4.

Once all identical shapes are connected, you should have the body, head and ears. Make sure to leave the bottoms of each shape open, so you can fill them with multipurpose potting mix later.

Step 5.

Cut the coco basket liners into pieces and line each part of the structure with them before connecting them together.

Step 6.

Here is a close-up on what the sculpture should look like with the coco liners before connecting the parts of the sculpture together

Step 7.

Connect all the separate parts together by twisting the loose ends together. Your sculpture should start to resemble a cat now.

Step 8.

Start filling the sculpture with multipurpose potting mix. Make sure you use enough mix, and push it firmly into the sculpture.

Step 9.

Once the sculpture is completely filled, close it up, using the twisting method.

Step 10.

Create holes in the coco lining, inserting the succulents one by one into them.

Step 11.

Add moss to fill the gaps on the sculpture. In order to keep the moss firm, squeeze some of the ends between the wire and lining.

Step 12.

Once you’re happy with the way it looks, place your sculpture into its final spot and water it gently. With time the moss and succulents will become denser and your sculpture will be greener!