If you need to create a special thank-you gift, or want to make something beautiful and simple to decorate after the holidays, try a dish garden.
All you need is about five minutes.
You can personalize, using anything from an antique china bowl to a simple strawberry or herb pot. You can use cactus, herbs and small tropical plants to create different looks.
The supplies to create a dish garden - a miniature landscape in a container - are relatively simple. You need a tabletop-type container, pebbles or moss, and several small plants that like similar growing conditions.
Your container should include drainage holes so plants don't sit in soggy soil. Otherwise, use gravel in the bottom of the container for drainage and let plants dry out between waterings. You can find the supplies at any garden center or store.
Here is one dish-garden idea:
- 14-inch-diameter basket (4inches deep with plastic liner to waterproof basket).
- Gravel to create half-inch layer in plastic liner.
- Potting medium.
- 6 small tropical plants from a garden center greenhouse. (We used tricolor acalypha, mint rose variegated geranium, variegated hoya, philodendron, dracaena and Chinese evergreen, all in 4- to 6-inch pots, $2.69-$4.99.)
- Decorative moss.
Place the plastic liner in the basket and cover bottom of liner with about half an inch of small gravel.
Use a potting medium (Miracle-Gro Moisture Control works well because it contains Soil Moist capsules to help retain moisture between waterings) to partially fill the liner.
Before you place each plant in the liner, remove the plant from the plastic growing pot and use your hands to gently break roots apart.
Place your tallest plants in the back, then stagger plant sizes and textures for visual interest. Let trailing plants hang over front and sides.
Finish filling liner with potting mixture.
Add decorative moss touches to top of potting medium and add a pretty bow to accent plant colors.
Cost: about $30.
- Small amounts of gravel, sand and potting soil.
- Shallow container large enough to hold 3succulents or other cactuses. (We used a blue ceramic container.)
- 3 miniature succulents or other cactuses in 2- to 4-inch pots.
- 2-3 small decorative stones.
Mix the gravel, sand and potting soil to form a planting medium that drains well. Use it to fill the container halfway.
Remove plants from their plastic pots and place the plants in the container. Add planting medium as you work.
Once your plants are in place, add more planting medium to secure them.
Position your small decorative stones or pebbles.
Cost: about $25.
- Strawberry pot-type herb container - strawberry pots have side holes for plants to grow out of. (We used a blue-and-white container found at a family member's house.)
- Potting medium.
- Assorted herbs in 2-inch pots, $2.69 each. (We used two pineapple sage, variegated myrtle, rosemary, tricolor sage and chives.)
Use planting medium to fill the pot-type herb container halfway.
Plant the side holes first, placing the root ball of the herb into the pot-type container, then gently pulling its foliage through the side hole. (We placed rosemary, chives and tricolor sage in the three side holes.)
Plant 2-3 herbs in the top of the container. (We placed variegated myrtle between two pineapple sage plants.)
Cost: about $25.
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