How to Make a Miniature Garden

Would you like to give a more original touch to your home? A miniature garden is a great way to freshen up any part of your home with a touch of subtlety.

Maybe you live in a city apartment or your house doesn’t have enough space to have a large garden. Don’t worry! There are other ways to decorate your home with plants and give it a natural feel. That’s why we’re going to bring you some tips on how to make a miniature garden in this article.

We need to bring freshness and greenery to our homes. Many of us don’t realize the importance of natural decoration. We usually resort to the typical ornamental elements, but what about the plant world? You can use plants to really good effect in your home.

The best way of doing this is to learn from the Asian world since they’re the precursors and promoters of Zen-style gardens inside homes. What they seek to do with these gardens is to provide peace and relaxation for the different areas of the houses. This, then, is where we find the main basis of the miniature gardens.

The aesthetic principle of a miniature garden

Indoor gardens can be very attractive, but even more so if they’re small. You can place them on shelves, or even on a living room table. They don’t need to be too overly big, as even very simple ones can transmit sensations that other decorative elements can’t achieve.

The good thing about miniature gardens is that they’re small elements that fit in anywhere in the house, even in the kitchen or bathroom. We’re talking about a completely innovative ornamental concept that doesn’t take over large areas of the house.

Implementation process – the container and the base

The most important thing about the miniature garden is the container you create or place it in. This will decide its shapes and aesthetics, and decide whether it could be placed on a shelf or even on the floor.

• Different types of containers can be used: plastic trays, wooden crates, recycled material, clay pots, and even copper pans.
• As mentioned above, the dimensions of this base must be taken into account. So, you must take into account where we’re going to place it, and decide which formats are best suited to that particular area.
• You need to place coarse-grained sand with a thickness of just over an inch at the base of the container to serve as drainage. Then place a layer of peat of about 6 inches thickness on top.
• To improve the quality of the garden, you can add some mulch mixed with clay soil.

Types of plants for the miniature garden

There a variety of different species that you can plant. We’ll now mention some of the most interesting and popular ones so that you can make an original miniature garden, trying to imitate the art of the bonsai:

• Begonia rex: This requires soil with an acid pH that you can obtain by adding humus soil and watering with very little water. If you have it in a small planter with little soil, then it won’t grow too much, because, normally, it can grow to a big size when not limited by its container.
• Saintpaulia ionantha: This is known as the African violet. It needs peat and a light area, but without direct sunlight. Watering should be moderate, letting the soil dry a little every time you water it. However, it needs to have constant humidity.

Other ornamental elements

The garden shouldn’t be limited only to the plants you use and the grass that grows, you can also decorate it with ornamental elements to offer an attractive and subtle appearance.

You can place some attractively-shaped colored stones among the plants, even tiny wooden fences. There’s also the option of making small paths to simulate an idyllic and natural environment.

On the other hand, some miniature logs also work very well. Within this range, there are dry and fine versions that help to imitate a forest floor.

What’s the purpose of a miniature garden?

A miniature garden aims to create a forest or wood on a small scale. The decorations we place in it will make this resource an attractive element wherever we place it.

In Japan, they’re very widespread. If you want to buy one online, there are plenty of companies that make this type of product and send them all over the world.