How to Design a Dish Garden

Dish garden with ornaments

Add a dish garden to your indoor décor to create a miniature landscape in your home. Dish gardens use a variety of indoor plants placed closely together within a closed container. Most dish gardens only include foliage plants, some enthusiasts put a blooming violet in the container to add color. Florists sell dish gardens as gifts or decorative accents, but you can create your own for a fraction of the cost.

Things You'll Need

• Ceramic dish or plastic lined basket Potting soil Small container house plants (varying heights and foliage) Pea gravel Plastic drainage tray

Instructions

How to Design a Dish Garden

1. Choose indoor houseplants from a garden center that can withstand the light conditions in the preferred location of your home. Designing a dish garden is based on personal preference. The only component parts of a dish garden include the dish and tightly spaced plantings within the confined container.

2. Choose a container for your dish garden. Examine the bottom of the container to check for drainage holes. Punch holes in the bottom of the dish if possible and use a plastic plant tray to protect furniture. Ceramic containers require a drainage field under the soil to prevent over-watering.

3. Place a 1- to 2-inch layer of pea gravel on the bottom of your dish. It won't harm your plants even if you have drainage holes in your container.

4. Water the small houseplant containers before planting. This will loosen the soil around the plants to make removal from the plastic pots easier.

5. Pour potting soil into the container until half full. Squeeze the plastic plant pots to loosen the roots and gently lift them plants out by grasping at the base of the stem.

6. Position the plants inside the dish garden. Traditional dish gardens feature taller plants such as spikes in the rear portion of the dish with smaller plants and vines toward the front. Position the loose plants. Ivy and vines look best around the edges because these plants tend to expand and trail. Ferns and mosses add a vibrant green contrast when paired with variegated leaf plants. Crowd the plants together to create a continuous garden of green foliage.

7. Dig small holes in the potting soil and plant each plant. Make sure to completely cover the roots, adding more potting soil and pressing on the soil to remove air pockets. Fill the dish garden to just below the rim of the container.

8. Add unique features to the dish garden by using any remaining pea gravel to cover the visible soil. You can add larger accent rocks for character or a whimsical small statue.

9. Water the dish garden until the soil is damp. Because placement is so tight, carefully monitor how often you water. Misting the plants with a sprayer every other day will help prevent over-watering, but you'll still need to water the dish garden occasionally.

References

• The Garden Helper