mini garden

Tired of the usual succulent arrangement you see on your tabletop? Want something unique, fun, and interesting? Have you ever heard of a tabletop mini succulent garden? Basically, it’s an arrangement of succulents but designed as a miniature garden in a large terracotta. You can put it on your foyer, your dining room table, your living room center table, or even in your outdoor garden. These tabletop miniature gardens are so addicting to arrange and they make for a great conversation starter.

First, what you need are 12-inch terracotta pot saucer (with or without drainage holes), cactus mix potting soil, miniature garden furnishings (arbor, chair, wheelbarrow, urn, cat, and dog), tiny pebbles or crushed rocks, and succulents with small leaves such as Crassula Tetragona, sedums, small-stacked crassulas, and Sedum rubrotinctum.

You can get all these materials from your local gardening shop or hardware. Most of these can be found under the gardening section. As for the succulents, you can pick them up from your favorite succulent store or you can find all of these available online. Simply place the order and wait for the delivery guy to drop off your succulent plants. Just remind the seller to pack the plants as securely as possible, so that they won’t lose any leaves or break off any stem.

1. Fill the pot with soil.

Clean the succulents pot and make sure that there are no broken areas. If there are no draining holes, drill small holes at the bottom of the pot, so you can water the succulents. It doesn’t have to be too many holes. Just a few small ones will do; enough to drain the water off the arrangement. Fill the terracotta pot with potting mix up to ½ inch below the rim. Next, secure the miniature arbor about an inch inside the rim of the saucer.

2. Create the pathway.

Using the finely crushed rocks or the pebbles, create a pathway from the edge of the pot and down to the middle of the arbor to the other side of the saucer. Just think about your own pathway in your garden at home and you should be fine. Don’t be afraid about not perfecting it the first time because you can always adjust the “pathway.”

3. Add the plants.

If you are growing succulents at home, simply pinch the top-half inch of the plants so you can insert their rosettes or tips into the soil. Do not put the plants on your “pathway.” Rather, place them between the pathway and the rim, creating a lush greenery that surrounds your little arbor.

4. Put the accents.

Finally, make the tabletop miniature garden look more realistic by adding accents such as a cat sitting on a bench, the wheelbarrow, a dog sitting beside the arbor, etc. You can be as creative as you want to be when it comes to using accents for a miniature garden. You can also pattern your tabletop miniature garden after your very own outdoor garden. Just find miniature accents that look exactly like the things you have scattered around your garden.

An interesting thing about finally deciding to start your own succulent garden is choosing the pots and containers that go with it. The thing about pots for succulent plants like CAL Farms Beautiful 36 of 2″ Assorted Succulents is that they are so diverse and they come in many different sizes, textures, and colors that it can be difficult to pick just one out of so many.

Over the years, we have come to realize that choosing the right pot for succulent plants is not only a matter of aesthetics. There are many things to be considered when choosing the right container, particularly the health of the succulents. The aesthetics will fall second to making sure that the plants will have enough drainage.

1. Drainage

If there is only one thing you can take away about the proper choosing of succulent pots, it’s this. Choose one with holes on the bottom for drainage. This will help you measure out the right consistency of watering the succulents. If you have a tendency to water the plants too much, these drainage holes will help keep your plants alive long enough for you to get it right.

If you find a pot that you love but doesn’t have drainage holes, do not fret because there’s a solution to that. Simply drill three to five small holes on the bottom of the pot. That’s enough to drain any excess water that the plants don’t need.

2. Material

You should consider the material that your pots are made of. The most common materials are ceramic, plastic, metal, glass, and wood. All of these have their own benefits and disadvantages, so choosing the right material will depend on where you plan to park your succulent.

Ceramic works best indoors because the material is breathable, which means it can be used in locations where there is not enough air. Plastic is not as fragile as ceramic but it is a lot less breathable and water does not easily evaporate in plastic pots. But if you are going to use a well-draining soil and there are drainage holes in your pot, you will do well with plastic pots indoors and even outdoors.

If you want to make your succulents stand out, you may opt for wood as planters. You can use a driftwood to plant your succulents in. It is ideal for hot environments because it stays cool and retains water.

3. Colors and Texture

After making sure of the drainage and the material, the fun really begins because you can be as creative and adventurous as you want to be. It depends how you want to go about this—either you choose the pot that will complement your succulents or you choose the succulents that will complement your pot.

4. Size

It’s hard to tell what size of pot you need for a particular succulent. Even if you know that the succulent would grow big, you are still not sure how rapid the growth would be. The rule of thumb is to keep half an inch of space to allow the succulent to grow just right. If there is too much space, the roots will branch out but it would be hard for the succulents to keep up.

How To Create An Adorable Tabletop Mini Succulent Garden