This document provides instructions for creating a dish garden. It discusses selecting a container, adding drainage materials and soil mix, choosing compatible plants, arranging the plants aesthetically, and adding optional decorations. The key steps are to select a shallow container, fill it with gravel, charcoal and soil mix, choose 3-5 compatible small or slow-growing plants, prune their roots if needed, arrange the plants artistically, and water sparingly until established. Decorations like paths, driftwood or rocks can be added to enhance the miniature landscape appearance.

1. Dish Garden
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2. Dish Garden
INTRODUCTION:
 A dish garden is a garden of plants growing in a shallow dish or bowl for a
container. The dish garden can be landscaped to represent a scene in
nature, it is a miniature ecosystem.
 The plants used in a dish garden should be compatible and cultivars that
stay small or grow very slowly are most commonly used.
 The medium should be well drained, but hold adequate moisture and
should not be very fertile, since a fertile medium would tend to encourage
rapid growth. If the container has drainage holes, a saucer or other
protective device should be put under it.

3. materials:
Container
Drainage Materials
Soil Mix
Plants And
Decorations And Trims

4. Container
 Unlike a traditional flower pot, there is usually no hole in
the bottom of a dish garden container. Suitable containers
include metal, china, glass, pottery, and plastic-lined
wooden bowls, boxes, and baskets, and antique and
reproduction items such as basin and pitcher sets.
 interesting shapes and colors, including dishware, old
gardening tools, outgrown toys, and bricks and concrete
blocks.
 A rather wide and shallow vessel helps to create the
illusion of a miniature landscape. Select a container deep
enough to provide room for the roots, soil, and necessary
drainage materials. Usually 3 inches deep is sufficient.

5. Drainage Materials
 Loose materials,
- such as small rocks, pea gravel,
marbles, and coarse sands, provide
drainage for a container with no holes.
 Coarse charcoal layered just above
the rocks prevents sour soil, s
common problem in dish gardens.
- Sourness results from too
much water (H2O) and from a lack of air
(Oxygen) between the soil particles.
Roots need air too!

6. Soil Mix
Most foliage and dish garden plants thrive in
a soil mix made of
 sterilized soil
 coarse sand and
 peat moss or leaf mold.
 You may either sterilize the soil in your
oven or buy a commercial sterile soil mix.
For cacti or succulents, double the amount
of coarse sand.

7. Plants
 Plant selection depends on each
plant’s compatibility with the
others and its adaptability to the
site conditions and the style of
the container.
 Avoid mixing incompatible
plants, such as cactus and coleus.
Plants thriving under different
conditions will not prosper
together in a dish garden.

8. Decorations and Trims
 Miniature figures and ground objects
- such as bits of wood, rocks, stones,
and crystals make appropriate additions to
a dish garden.
- Select shapes, colors, and sizes to
create interest and contrast. As a rule,
minimal decorations create the greatest
charm and delight.

9. Type of Dish
Garden
Plant Selection Ideas Sunlight Requirement Other
Special Needs
Bog Ground & club mosses, small ferns Full to part sun
Desert Agave, aloe, cactus, crown of thorns,
echeveria, haworthia, house leek, jade, sun, kalanchoe,
opuntia, panda plant, sedum, snake plant
Full to part sun, Sandy soil
Field and Meadow Ferns, fungi, grasses, hawkweed, juniper seedling, lichens,
mosses, pussytoes, wild strawberry
Full to part sun
Herbs Chives, creeping thyme, rosemary, other small herbs Full to part sun, Sandy rocky
soil
Mediterranean Euphorbias, succulents, small cacti Full to part sun, Sandy soil
Tropical Aspidistra, birdsnest fern, bromelia, Chinese evergreen,
croton, dracaena, English and grape ivy, neantha bella Tropical
palm, peperomia, philodendron, pittosporum, podocarpus,
pothos, pteris fern, sansevieria, snake plant, ti plant,
wandering Jew
Shade, indirect light
Violet Wild violets, small herbs Full to part sun
Woodland Ferns, grasses, club, hair-cap, & minum
mosses, hepatica, mountain laurel, Woodland partridgeberry,
pipsissewa, rattlesnake plantain, rock polypody, wintergreen
seedling yew, fir, pine, & hemlock

10. Bog

11. Herbs

12. Moss

13. woodland

14. Desert

16. FIELD AND MEADOW

19. Mediterranean

20. PROCEDURES:
Choose a container for the dish garden.
 Put a 1/2 to 1 inch layer of
gravel into the container.
Add one to two tablespoons
of charcoal to the gravel
layer. Then fill the container
just short of the top with
peatlite mix.

22. Choose a group of compatible plants for the
dish garden.
 Usually this would be three to five plants, three in
the smaller sized containers and as many a five for
larger containers.
 The plants should be compatible with each other, all
should be able to survive in a dry environment.
Choose plants that have varied characteristics, for
example one that will be taller than the others,
some that are intermediate in height and width and
one that will be low and spreading in growth habit.
Choose plants with varied leaf textures, shapes and
colors.

27. Inspect the plants before putting them in the
dish garden.
 Check for pests and control them if
present.
 Remove old, yellowing leaves, dead
flowers and other unwanted plant
material.
 If the plant is a little too large for the
container, prune some of its leaves
and/or stems so that it will fit.
 Very small plants of the same type
could be grouped to give them more
weight in the dish garden.

28. Set the plants in the dish garden in an
aesthetically pleasing arrangement
 If the garden is to be viewed from all sides, the
tallest plant should be set in the center, but
gardens that are to be viewed from one side
should have the tallest plant or plants set to the
side that is to be the back.
 The tallest plant should go in first, then the
intermediate plants and finally the smallest
plants.
 Don�t crowd the dish garden, save space for
the plants to grow! Cuttings or newly rooted
cuttings are excellent for planting in a dish
garden, but they may need a little extra
attention for the first few weeks.

29. Set the plants in the dish garden in an
aesthetically pleasing arrangement
 If you use potted plants, remove
most of the potting medium from
the root systems.
 Prune long roots that will not easily
fit in the dish gardens medium. It is
better to prune these long roots than
to mat them into a pile and cover
them with medium. Remember that
the dish garden is an excellent place
for root development since there is
very little stress on the plants

30. Stand back and look at your dish garden
from a distance to be sure that it is
aesthetically pleasing.
 This is often difficult to tell when looking
at it from above. When you are
convinced that the placement of plants
is proper, water the dish garden.
 Since the peatlite mix will hold a lot of
water, add the water in increments to
avoid over-watering. In general you
would add a volume of water equivalent
to one-fourth to one-third the volume
of the container.

31. Put ornamentation in your dish garden
 A path may be made of gravel or
stones, driftwood could give the
appearance of a decaying log and
rocks or petrified wood could be used
to represent rocks or hills.
 Avoid artificial flowers and artificially
colored stones or pebbles or critters.
Small artificial birds, toads and lizards
are acceptable, but only if naturally
colored and used to complement the
plants.