Are you eager to try gardening, but short on time and energy? How about making a simple dish garden.
What You Need
- Large saucer, a pie pan, or other shallow container, ideally with holes to allow drainage
- Any decorations you want such as moss, sand, small shells, twigs, stones, sand, rocks, driftwood or wild-looking mini-branches
- Gravel
- A bottle for misting your garden
- A few small shade-loving plants, desert-type plants or cactuses
- Potting soil or cactus potting mix: two parts sand to one part peat moss (twice as much sand as peat moss).
- Water
What You Do
- Spread gravel
Spread a layer of gravel on the bottom of a large saucer, a pie pan, or other shallow container.
- Add soil and plants
Add potting soil or cactus potting mix and a few small shade-loving plants, desert-type plants or cactuses. Fill in around each plant with soil, packing it gently, and then water the plants lightly.
- Add decorations
Add any decorations you want such as moss, sand, small shells, twigs, stones, rocks, driftwood or wild-looking mini-branches.
- Mist your garden
Put your dish garden in a northern window—one that’s not in bright sun. Be sure you keep the soil moist, not sopping wet. If you have moss, mist it every few days. - Allow drainage
It’s a good idea to use a container with holes in the bottom and a plate under it. (You could ask an adult to help you drill some holes in a plastic saucer.) This keeps your garden from staying too wet.
Activity created by Robin Walker.
