Looking for an idea
“Very often, an author’s mini garden is a collection of exotic plants, which not everyone can afford to purchase.”
The passion for miniature gardening begins with an unbridled desire to have a piece of real wildlife at home. Having scoured the Internet, you were probably impressed by what you saw and are now scrolling through your head about how you could improve this or that picture to make the kindergarten even nicer and more attractive.
A piece of real wildlife
Before you settle on any option, think about whether you can actually implement it? Very often, an author’s mini garden is a collection of exotic plants, which not everyone can afford to purchase. Perhaps it makes sense for you to focus on something simpler and recreate the landscape of the Mexican desert or a small copy of a rock garden, where the varieties and varieties of green spaces available in the house or dacha can be used?
How to replace moss (ground cover plants)
Very similar to Nertera moss. It is also called coral moss, but it is simply a miniature herbaceous plant. It is interesting because, under favorable conditions, it is covered with bright orange, no less bright yellow or lilac/dark blue, purple, and white berries.
Coral moss or Nertera. This plant can be a decoration, but it is difficult to get berries to appear in a jar or ball
Selaginella Krausa and Selaginella Jory. These are compact tropical plants with a leaf height of 2-5 cm. They form dense cushions of bright greenery. They can successfully replace moss.
Two more plants that can replace moss in a florarium
Soleirolia. In nature, it forms small mounds about 5 cm high. The foliage is green, in different shades. Long thin shoots with very small leaves. In recent years, varieties with silver and golden foliage have been developed.
Types of garden miniatures
What do they suggest creating your own photos of mini gardens in a pot?
- tropical island.
- rock garden.
- zoo
- garden of mirrors
- church garden.
- changeling.
- Japanese garden.
Mini garden in a pot
This is just one drop from the sea of ideas given to us by professionals and our own imagination. Perhaps you are ready to go much further than traditional ideas and recreate something futuristic, in fancy shapes and with original lighting. You can get creative with your child and create a kinder garden that your child will really enjoy looking after. This is generally a great idea, since it kills two birds with one stone:
1. The child learns to be responsible and love nature.
2. A wonderful decorative element appears in the house.
Among the eternal classics, bonsai gardens and cascade plantings, imitations of the Gardens of Babylon, are always in favor. The Amazonian jungle and seasonal gardens are gorgeous, reminiscent of the delights of spring and winter nature and the beauty of autumn.
Mini garden is a wonderful decorative element
A mini garden in a pot can embody a fairy-tale scene or a historical moment, or take you to popular places, for example, a walk along the Champs-Elysees. Don’t forget that when working on a layout, you can use not only floral material, but also any decorative elements. It is recommended to hide the soil under a layer of gravel, a layer of clay, or sand. This will help create the ambience required by the idea.
Do not be alarmed by ideas requiring the organization of reservoirs. They are very easy to make by digging a lid from a plastic container into the ground or placing a saucer borrowed from a doll's dish.
Compositions with buildings, especially those made by hand, rather than mass-produced ones purchased in a store, are very impressive.
Composition with buildings
A garden planted in a pot can become a nomadic decorative element. In the summer it will wonderfully fit into the landscape of a suburban area, and with the first cold weather it will return to the house.
A garden miniature does not have to be placed in a flowerbed. It can be placed at the entrance to the veranda, placed on a personal table, or even hung in a flowerpot.
In summer, a mini garden will decorate the veranda
Backlight
Soft lighting will add special charm to the mini-garden in the evening. A battery-powered LED string garland is best suited for this purpose. A thin wire can be easily hidden in moss or between stones, and the luminous points will resemble small fireflies living in a fairy-tale forest.
14.jpg
It is also quite simple to provide night lighting for the house - just install an electronic candle or LED light bulb with an autonomous battery inside, leaving access to the switch from the outside. The windows of the dollhouse must be transparent.
If you don’t want to install real light, you can use phosphor figures, luminescent paint or luminous polymer clay.
Where to set up a mini garden
To become the owner of a wonderful diva, you don’t have to look for a suitable pot. Garden improvisation can be arranged in any container with a height of more than 10 cm. For fastidious plants, larger volumes may be needed, but for succulents the minimum is always enough. What can you use from scrap materials?
1. pallets of any type;
2. containers;
3. old sinks;
4. large-volume plastic bottle;
5. old bowl.
Mini garden in an old sink
It all depends on the assortment of selected plants and what you want to see in the decor of the landscape.
It should be noted that sometimes the mini garden in a broken pot shown in the photo, assembled by an amateur with his own hands, gives odds to the work of seasoned professionals.
Mini garden in a broken pot
Whatever you choose as a container for planting, remember one thing: you should provide high-quality drainage. This is especially important for compositions that are planned to be displayed outdoors on balconies or cottages. Without good drainage, the soil will quickly silt, plant roots will rot, and your work will go to waste.
Don't be put off by the unsightliness of your chosen container. You can always decorate it to your own taste. For this there are paints, stones, rhinestones, beads, natural materials, and, of course, buttons, shards of dishes and broken mirrors. Glue or a specific peat-cement-sand mixture will help to attach them to the containers.
Pot decor for a mini garden
Mosses for florariums
Stabilized mosses are often used for florariums. This is ordinary moss, in which the water is replaced with a special solution, which, as it were, preserves the plant. It is not dry in appearance or to the touch, but all biological processes have stopped.
Moss can be the only plant in a mini-florarium
More common and easily accessible is Sphagnum moss; in florist shops you can buy a variety that is more suitable for the planned planting conditions. In general, “ordinary” moss can be found almost anywhere where there is enough moisture. In any case, near a well, in a storm drain, etc. Just pick up a certain amount, then place it on the soil, stones, etc.
This is sphagnum
You can grow moss specially - on stones and snags. It will take time, of course, but the result is worth it. If there are seeds, use them; if not, pick up any moss along with the soil in which it grows. Next, take kefir (preferably organic) or molasses, or whey (unpasteurized), add a nutrient medium. The simplest option is grated potatoes into porridge. Add moss to this mixture and mix everything in a blender. Using an old brush, apply to the places where the moss should take root. Since mini-gardens require microscopic doses, you can do without a mixer, just mix the composition well.
Plants and decor for a mini garden in a pot
What to choose
When starting to organize such a corner of nature, you need to be clearly aware that this is not just a craft, but an exhibit that requires your regular attention and some care. This is said solely so that when choosing plants, you think about their varieties and get acquainted with the conditions of detention. Such knowledge will help you decide on the time spent on caring for the composition. If you are a busy person and are not ready to spend even an hour on green friends, stop at unpretentious flora.
For a mini garden, choose unpretentious plants
The second important point in choosing a planting composition will be the choice of garden style. There is no need to rush to grab everything at once. Decide what exactly you want to see: a complex miniature of a full-fledged garden or just a separate landscape element. Some will be impressed by a mini garden in the Japanese or Chinese spirit, while others will be content with imitation of an ordinary flower bed.
Mini kindergarten in Japanese style
But still, if you want to get a real mini world in which you could disappear after a hard day and forget about pressing problems while caring for it, then recreate complete landscape compositions, like an entire garden plot, with all the buildings, paths and living creatures.
Landscape composition of a mini kindergarten
Before you sit down to work, make a plan for the future site, taking into account where the mini garden in a pot will be located, how visible it will be and from which side it will be, how long the sun’s rays will hit its surface, and whether it will get it at all. If the composition is visible only from one side, then it is imperative to make its landscape sublime. Slides should appear on the surface.
Also, the panoramic view will affect the choice of the shape of the container for planting. For a garden on a windowsill, it is better to take rectangular or square flowerpots.
A rectangular mini garden is suitable for window sills
Floral filling
Selection of plants for composition is an extremely important stage. Those varieties that have a tendency to grow rapidly will not be suitable for landscaping. Such plantings will have to be regularly thinned and trimmed, which is quite tedious. Try to navigate by the photo when planting a mini garden in a pot with your own hands. Priority should remain with slow-growing groundcovers, succulents, and milkweeds that prefer rocky soil.
Mini garden of succulents
Gelxin will provide enough greenery for the space. If you need to add color to the exposure, you should use pachyphytum. The plant will be an excellent addition to mini copies of Mediterranean-type gardens and exotic projects.
Gelksina will be an excellent addition to gardens
Gasteria also feels wonderful in small areas. They look great in a duet and complement each other wonderfully. The roots of unpretentious plants are comfortable even in stone crevices, so they are actively used on rocky soils.
If you are interested in more complex floral plantings, where there are elements of park design, add myrtle and crassula to the plan. The decorativeness of their crowns is off the charts, while the plants themselves do not require special care.
Myrtle has a decorative crown
A mini garden for decorating a balcony or expanse of a suburban area can be replenished with dwarf conifers. Thus, the beautiful spruce is often used as a compositional center; juniper is used to set the mood for the garden; cypress is simply used as a decorative element.
What should you take into a mini landscape of blooming flowers? Sedums. It’s simply a sin to forget about these crumbs that enliven the space around you. Fittonias will be good. Although their flowers are small, the foliage pleases with a variety of shades, so there is always the opportunity to diversify the color scheme of the lawn palette.
Fittonias provide a variety of colors
Small ivy perfectly corrects the overall appearance. These crawling creatures can crawl along the ground or weave around architectural forms provided on a mini site.
When creating a mini garden in a pot with your own hands, follow the photo. Miniature varieties of roses, Saintpaulia, Streptocarpus, and cyclamen can make the composition sparkle unusually. The inclusions of Chamaedorea gracilis and Pilea Cadieu look interesting. However, like any beauty, this one also requires sacrifice. Plants require specific care, so those who do not plan to take special care of them are better off not messing with such a floristic base.
Blooming mini garden
What else is permissible to populate the area is flowering annuals. As the plants fade, they will need to be removed and new shoots with buds planted in their place.
Subtleties of decor
“It’s a good idea to make a mini-kindergarten attractive not only during the day, but also at night”
In order for a mini garden in a pot to turn out to be soulful, you need to think about its design. If the composition was conceived as an estate, then the house should appear first on the site. This will be the central element of the decor, a kind of stove, from which it will be much easier to dance with the construction of a further plot.
Don’t be lazy to draw up a planting plan and strictly follow it. This will leave room for decorating the area with alleys and paths, installing small architectural forms, fences, toys and figurines.
Fairytale mini garden with decorative figures
Try to put your soul into your work and everything you can do with your own hands. Agree, making a well from matches is not too difficult, just like putting up a fence from pieces of twigs.
Doll furniture is often used as decoration. This is typical for a French-style mini-kindergarten. If you can’t find one, make a few wire items yourself and paint them white. In the Dutch variation, the emphasis is given to the mill. The white wooden beauty looks incredibly impressive surrounded by tulips. Decorative houses and castles are made from salt dough or made from clay, cardboard, or ordinary matchboxes. Lightweight bungalows are made from straw. You can put up a hut in the open spaces of the meadow.
Doll furniture is often used for a mini garden.
It’s a good idea to make a mini-kindergarten attractive not only during the day, but also at night. To do this, you should stretch an LED garland in it. The luminous colors used to decorate garden elements will also provide soft light. It is possible to give a residential look to a house surrounded by greenery. Just place an LED candle inside it.
Before plunging into decorative vicissitudes, find an idea suitable for implementation. You can go the other way, decorate the composition with everything that is at hand. It will turn out no less picturesque, but stylistically sparse. Do not forget that after planting the ground, you can cover it with porous stones, which will not only decorate the landscape with their presence, but also absorb excess moisture. Tuff, small shell rock, and limestone are ideal for this role.
Mini garden with lighting
When creating a mini stone garden in a pot with your own hands according to the photo, use a symbiosis of pebbles and larger rocky blocks. By the way, the porous stones themselves can be turned into a place for planting plants. Drill holes in them and fill them with soil. Cacti and moss will feel wonderful in such a pot. The latter is very relevant in the design of miniature gardens. It is best to use sphagnum moss, although any other variety will do.
Stone mini garden in a pot
Does the composition include a pond? Don't forget to beat him beautifully. Hide the synthetic bottom under a layer of decorative crushed stone and line the banks with saltwater and nertera. A dwarf ficus will look good near the water. To create the illusion of tropical gardens, add Dracaena sandera to your planting.
Mini garden in tropical style with imitation water
It is not possible to use real water in the landscape of a mini-kindergarten; look for a way out of the situation in an alternative replacement. A mirror, a piece of foil, a handful of blue beads, or shiny pebbles can imitate the surface of the water. A dry stream is reproduced in the rock garden.
Play up everything. Beautiful alpine hills, desert landscapes, rocky gardens, Caucasian meadows can only be achieved with a competent arrangement of stones and cacti. A stone rose and pink blooming sedum are intended to diversify the rockeries. Here is the kingdom of saxifrage, diamondweed, and striped haworthia. The latter is simply irreplaceable in deserts with poor floristic diversity.
Picturesque rocky mini garden
If you are not ready to make a voluminous mini garden in a pot with your own hands, as in the photo, stop at a modest composition in a cup. Here there will be much less work, and you can put it right on your desktop, which will give you the opportunity to periodically take a break from your work and relax.
Mini garden in a cup
Decorative elements
Usually the center of the composition is a house. It can be made from various available materials - plastic and glass containers, old toys, wood, clay, plaster, concrete. To attach the stones to a smooth base, you will need a hot glue gun. Next, the empty space between the masonry is covered with plaster mortar, and the roof is installed.
bezymannyy.jpg
Windows, doors, all kinds of small decor and figures can be easily made from polymer clay. During modeling, it is pliable, like plasticine, and after drying (baking) it acquires the properties of plastic. Polymer products are not at all afraid of moisture and are resistant to ultraviolet radiation.
fairy-village-miniature-garden-pattern_105638.jpg
Photo gallery – mini kindergarten
If it’s a tree, then it’s standard
If you still want to fit a tree on your site, you should opt for standard forms. They won’t exactly grow particularly large (the height depends on the grafting site), but how beautiful and original they are!
When purchasing, be sure to pay attention to the winter hardiness zone. For central Russia, the value should not be higher than 5.
Standard forms of rough elm (weeping crown), Swiss willow (globular crown), goat willow Pendula (weeping crown), purple willow Pendula (weeping form), brilliant cotoneaster , European larch Repens (weeping crown), Japanese larch Stiff Weeper (crown) are suitable weeping), Blue Dwarf (hemispherical crown) and other breeds.
of mountain pine for sale .
Baby conifers
Among conifers, dwarf forms of various types of cushion-shaped spruce (Little Gem, Maxwelli, Nidiformis, Pygmaea, Conica), pines (Mops, Mini Mops, Brevifolia, Nana, Gnom), thuja (Danica, Tiny Tim), junipers (common Green carpet, horizontal Blue Pygmea, Blue Chip, Golden Carpet and Wiltonii, Cossack Variegata, scaly Blue Carpet ).
Again, if you set a goal and find tiny specimens of coniferous plants from private collectors, you will find Pinocchio spruce, Itti-Bitti spruce and others among them.
Gray spruce Pinocchio
