Your own mini-dessert oasis in under an hour!
March 6, 2004 | 12:00am
I have always been fascinated by succulent dish gardens. Combining several plants with different colors, spination, forms and shapes but with similar cultural requirements makes for a fascinating and attractive display and an intriguing conversation piece. But did you know that putting one of these creative mini-gardens together can take you less than an hour to do? Absolutely! But there’s one small catch. In one word, "preparation." You have to prepare all the proper "ingredients" beforehand, and this facilitates execution. Here is a simple, step-by-step process to creating your own mini-desert oasis.
Choose a nice container for your mini-garden. There are several types of containers, from regular clay to plastic, from ceramic to terra-cotta. And these come in different shapes and sizes. Whatever you choose, make sure there is a drainage hole at the bottom to allow any excess water and moisture to drain away. For my mini-garden, I chose a beautiful orient-inspired square ceramic bowl from Adela Ang’s Green 2000 shop. Adela has a very nice selection of decorative bowls to choose from. This particular bowl has the properties of both ceramic and clay.
When choosing the succulent plants for your display, keep the relative size of your chosen container in mind as this will give you an idea of how many plants (and the size of the plants) you will need for your display. Also make sure you choose plants which have similar cultural requirements, as these will be growing together and will be subjected to the same treatment. You don’t want to combine succulents which have widely different needs as this will surely result in sub-optimized care and conditions for some (or even all) of the plants in your display. For example, you don’t want to combine very slow-growing and water-sensitive Mexican rarities, like Turbinicarpus and Ariocarpus, with faster-growing, more moisture and humus-loving plants like Gymnocalycium and Notocactus. For my display, I have selected plants that require similar growing medium, light and water requirements. For cacti, these include Notocactus ottonis, Echinopsis cv. "haku-jo" from Japan, and two monstrous forms of Mammillaria (the yellow M. elongata looking like a piece of brain, and the white-spined M. gracilis). For the succulents, I have a Graptopetalum, a variegated Portulacaria (I think), a rare Anacampseros, and, of course, my favorite Haworthia (in this case, H. cymbiformis v. cymbiformis). Most of these plants were purchased from those fab-succulent growers from Benguet.
Make sure you have the right tools in place. For me, these would include: Your trusty hand trowel, a fine paintbrush, a narrow spatula or something similar for getting at those nooks and crannies and a mist-sprayer.
Also make sure you have all the other necessary ingredients to produce your mini-showpiece. These are: The right soil mix – for this display, I’m using a mix composed of 40 percent leaf mould/compost, 30 percent pumice stone, and 30 percent crushed volcanic rock/cinder. Next, some decorative pebbles/gravel which will be used to "finish the look" of your garden and provide anchorage for your plants. Also, have a few decorative stones which will be strategically placed around the dish to heighten the desert effect. Finally, have a bag of extra drainage material (like gravel, crushed volcanic rock, pumice, perlite, etc.), which will be used to provide extra drainage at the bottom of your bowl. Now you’re all set to execute your creative mini-desert landscape.
Step 1: Arrange your plant specimens in the container for the best effect. This will give you a plan or blueprint for how your landscape design will evolve. Of course, nothing is "engrained in stone" at this stage. You may find during the later stages of execution that you may need to tweak your original design here and there to suit your creative purposes.
Step 2: Cover the drainage hole in your container with a piece of screen, then fill the bottom third with your drainage material. In this case, I’m using crushed volcanic rock. This will allow excess water to drain from the growing mix and ensure that the growing medium doesn’t stay too moist for too long.
Step 3: Begin to fill the container with your growing mix. Don’t fill the container to the very top yet. For the somewhat tall container I used in this exercise, I filled the container till about two inches from the top. This way, I can work the roots of the various plant specimens into the soil much more easily.
Step 4: Now to start potting up the plants into the garden. I like to start off with the largest plant (in this case, the Portulacaria) and place this in one corner of the dish garden. I then plant the next specimens which will be adjacent to the first plant, and move on from there. If I need to make adjustments to my original design/blueprint to suit my interests, I’ll do so here in Step 4. Carefully unpot each of your plant specimens, remove the old soil and any dead roots, and plant gently into your dish, firming the soil around the roots to make sure there is good contact between root and growing medium. Use your spatula (or even an ordinary plastic party spoon) to make sure soil gets to those nooks and crannies around the edges of your container and your plants’ roots. You can also use your spatula to gently firm the soil around your plants’ roots.
When arranging your plants, make sure the bigger/taller plants do not overshadow or cover the smaller plants. Make sure each plant has enough access to sunlight. Also, don’t overcrowd your plants.
Step 5: Now, place your decorative stones (not the pebbles yet) strategically around the dish to give a mini-desert landscape effect. In this exercise, I used white stones which I picked up from around my home garden.
Step 6: Now, decorate the top of your container with a top dressing of small gravel and pebbles. In this exercise, I used two different types of pebbles. I started off with a white pebble and then finished with a yellowish-brown variant. But you can do whatever you want to achieve your desired effect. I’ll also use my spatula or my fingers to help firm up the gravel around the growing medium and plants. You don’t want your gravel top dressing to fall off from the sides of your dish.
Step 7: With a fine painter’s brush, dust off any soil, dirt, or other unwanted particles from your plants and your decorative stones.
Step 8: Finally, mist your entire desert creation with a fine plant sprayer. This will clear off any other dirt particles left on your display, as well as provide a bit of moisture for your plants. Mist your dish garden for the next four to five days, ideally in the late afternoon. Don’t water your dish at this time, as you want to give the plants’ roots ample time to adjust to their new setting and heal any damaged roots during the potting process. I will mist the dish garden each day for the next four or five days before finally giving the plants their first real (but light) watering.
Make sure you place your dish garden where the plants can get at least four hours of direct sunlight each day. Then sit back, relax and enjoy your minitiature desert oasis!
When choosing the succulent plants for your display, keep the relative size of your chosen container in mind as this will give you an idea of how many plants (and the size of the plants) you will need for your display. Also make sure you choose plants which have similar cultural requirements, as these will be growing together and will be subjected to the same treatment. You don’t want to combine succulents which have widely different needs as this will surely result in sub-optimized care and conditions for some (or even all) of the plants in your display. For example, you don’t want to combine very slow-growing and water-sensitive Mexican rarities, like Turbinicarpus and Ariocarpus, with faster-growing, more moisture and humus-loving plants like Gymnocalycium and Notocactus. For my display, I have selected plants that require similar growing medium, light and water requirements. For cacti, these include Notocactus ottonis, Echinopsis cv. "haku-jo" from Japan, and two monstrous forms of Mammillaria (the yellow M. elongata looking like a piece of brain, and the white-spined M. gracilis). For the succulents, I have a Graptopetalum, a variegated Portulacaria (I think), a rare Anacampseros, and, of course, my favorite Haworthia (in this case, H. cymbiformis v. cymbiformis). Most of these plants were purchased from those fab-succulent growers from Benguet.
Make sure you have the right tools in place. For me, these would include: Your trusty hand trowel, a fine paintbrush, a narrow spatula or something similar for getting at those nooks and crannies and a mist-sprayer.
Also make sure you have all the other necessary ingredients to produce your mini-showpiece. These are: The right soil mix – for this display, I’m using a mix composed of 40 percent leaf mould/compost, 30 percent pumice stone, and 30 percent crushed volcanic rock/cinder. Next, some decorative pebbles/gravel which will be used to "finish the look" of your garden and provide anchorage for your plants. Also, have a few decorative stones which will be strategically placed around the dish to heighten the desert effect. Finally, have a bag of extra drainage material (like gravel, crushed volcanic rock, pumice, perlite, etc.), which will be used to provide extra drainage at the bottom of your bowl. Now you’re all set to execute your creative mini-desert landscape.
Step 2: Cover the drainage hole in your container with a piece of screen, then fill the bottom third with your drainage material. In this case, I’m using crushed volcanic rock. This will allow excess water to drain from the growing mix and ensure that the growing medium doesn’t stay too moist for too long.
Step 3: Begin to fill the container with your growing mix. Don’t fill the container to the very top yet. For the somewhat tall container I used in this exercise, I filled the container till about two inches from the top. This way, I can work the roots of the various plant specimens into the soil much more easily.
Step 4: Now to start potting up the plants into the garden. I like to start off with the largest plant (in this case, the Portulacaria) and place this in one corner of the dish garden. I then plant the next specimens which will be adjacent to the first plant, and move on from there. If I need to make adjustments to my original design/blueprint to suit my interests, I’ll do so here in Step 4. Carefully unpot each of your plant specimens, remove the old soil and any dead roots, and plant gently into your dish, firming the soil around the roots to make sure there is good contact between root and growing medium. Use your spatula (or even an ordinary plastic party spoon) to make sure soil gets to those nooks and crannies around the edges of your container and your plants’ roots. You can also use your spatula to gently firm the soil around your plants’ roots.
When arranging your plants, make sure the bigger/taller plants do not overshadow or cover the smaller plants. Make sure each plant has enough access to sunlight. Also, don’t overcrowd your plants.
Step 5: Now, place your decorative stones (not the pebbles yet) strategically around the dish to give a mini-desert landscape effect. In this exercise, I used white stones which I picked up from around my home garden.
Step 6: Now, decorate the top of your container with a top dressing of small gravel and pebbles. In this exercise, I used two different types of pebbles. I started off with a white pebble and then finished with a yellowish-brown variant. But you can do whatever you want to achieve your desired effect. I’ll also use my spatula or my fingers to help firm up the gravel around the growing medium and plants. You don’t want your gravel top dressing to fall off from the sides of your dish.
Step 7: With a fine painter’s brush, dust off any soil, dirt, or other unwanted particles from your plants and your decorative stones.
Step 8: Finally, mist your entire desert creation with a fine plant sprayer. This will clear off any other dirt particles left on your display, as well as provide a bit of moisture for your plants. Mist your dish garden for the next four to five days, ideally in the late afternoon. Don’t water your dish at this time, as you want to give the plants’ roots ample time to adjust to their new setting and heal any damaged roots during the potting process. I will mist the dish garden each day for the next four or five days before finally giving the plants their first real (but light) watering.
Make sure you place your dish garden where the plants can get at least four hours of direct sunlight each day. Then sit back, relax and enjoy your minitiature desert oasis!
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