Miniature Gardening Ideas
It’s true that we’ve become a little obsessed with miniature gardening this year. Because of our backyard chickens, we must keep our tiny creations in pots or other containers on our deck so they don’t get destroyed.
Here are three mini gardens we created this year, which should give you some good ideas for your own tiny landscaping projects.
Miniature Garden #1
This garden was created in a standard planting pot. We filled it with potting soil and sculpted some little hills out of potting soil. We found some tiny rocks for the retaining wall and natural stone staircase. Note: you’ll need to use mud made out of a clay-filled dirt to hold these rocks together as the potting soil won’t hold together. Making the retaining wall was quite a lot of detail work and it get’s awfully messy, which is of course the best part! I like to keep a spray bottle of water handy when doing rock work like this.
I used Irish moss for the top pathway, which took a few months to fill in as I didn’t have enough to quite cover the area. You will notice a few tops of acorns turned upside down on the top. Those don’t serve any purpose, but I like using natural materials as much as possible and acorns are so cute. Then I used some moss that I found in a stream bed by my lovely mother-in-law’s house for the ground. This moss doesn’t grow nearly as long as the Irish moss, so it was more suitable for the bottom of the garden so the chair stayed put. Also notice how it started to fill in between the rocks!
Miniature Garden #2
This miniature landscape was created in a used Medicine cabinet that I found at the ReStore. You’d be amazed at the stuff you can find there, and it made for an interesting container. The main feature of this mini garden is the metal bridge, which I bought here in Madison at Olbrich Garden’s gift shop. They have some adorable pieces that you must check out if you are a mini gardener.
For the plants, I used sedum, which is my favorite groundcover / succulent. You can see a different variety of Irish moss that is cut by a blue stone path. The other side of the garden is covered with oregano, which I discovered is a nice low growing plant for tiny landscapes. And then you’ll see the creeping Jenny pouring out of the sides. This may be a bit of a rambunctious grower for a mini garden, but it has some nice fall color, doesn’t it? I sprinkled some pine cones and other natural rocks around, and created a dry riverbed beneath the bridge.
Miniature Garden #3
This garden has already been featured on this blog, but the moss has filled in so nicely that I wanted to show you an updated photo. Click here to read the original article.