Look beyond the ordinary for miniature garden containers. This award-winning garden from Tiffany Polli is part miniature garden, part container garden, all adorable. Planted with succulents, including string of pearls for the “tea” coming out of the teapot, it’s well suited for indoor locations with bright light. Planting design and photo by Tiffany Polli.
In miniature gardening, the container can either add to the theme or take away from it. The container can ensure the longevity of your planting design or cause you to have to replant before you’re ready. Choosing the right container for your mini-garden or terrarium is as important as choosing the plants and accessories.
The ideal miniature garden container will:
• Enhance the theme
• Stand up to the conditions of the environment where the finished garden will sit
• Be large enough and deep enough for the plants it will contain
There are some containers that are better suited for indoor mini-gardens than outdoor gardens and vice versa. Terrarium containers have to have clear walls and a clear top in order to allow light to reach the plants.
On the following pages you’ll find many tips for choosing the right container for your miniature garden.
Any container that is going to be used indoors that has drainage holes in it will require some sort of watertight tray underneath it. You can buy inexpensive clear plastic trays at garden centers. You can also use a decorative plate or platter. The important thing that the tray must do is protect your furniture from water.
This container from supplier Fairy Gardening is a square plastic box with drainage holes and a drain tray (not visible under the box). You can get various decorative boxes or fences to put the container in or to put around the container.
Drainage is important, and indoor containers can suffer when they don’t have drainage holes. I selected this container for the beach garden because the wood on the outside looked beachy—like driftwood or a beach fence—but the container had no drainage. I grabbed an inexpensive plastic tray and poked holes in the bottom and put that inside the container. If the beach gets soggy, I can always pull it (albeit gently, and with help) out of the container.
A container without drainage holes requires rocks in the bottom or a container within the container that you can poke drainage holes in.
Water bowls make good containers for planting. Before planting, have the garden center drill a hole in the bottom.
This container extends the theme of the garden inside it.
The container can add to or detract from the overall theme of a mini-garden. If you can, it’s nice to select a container that will help carry out the theme, as in the case of the Garden at the Beach.
Water bowls with a hole drilled in the bottom make great containers for outdoor miniature gardens. They’re a bit thick and heavy for indoor gardens. Choose a color that complements your accessories and plants and use color in a container to your advantage. Many of the plants suitable for mini-gardens are mostly varying shades of green. A container is a great way to add some color to the design.
The blue container enhances this backyard scene. It adds a nice patriotic flair with the flag, red bicycle, and white patio furniture.
A cute fish container adds whimsy to this miniature garden.
Sometimes the container is as much a part of the garden as the plants. In the case of the teapot garden on here, the container makes the garden. This fish container (above, right) turns into a miniature underwater garden; the plants look like coral or seaweed, enhancing the effect of the fish container.
The location in which you’re planning to display the garden affects container selection as much as plant selection. A large container will be heavy when filled with plants and soil. Choose a big piece of pottery for containers that will stay put.
Durable pottery, terra cotta, or plastic containers hold up well outside, but repurposed items such as cigar boxes and many wooden containers are better suited for indoor use.
This fairy fountain should be planted with plants suitable for covered patio gardens and indoor gardens. The electrical system for the fountain makes it impractical for outdoor gardens.
Hypertufa containers are popular for miniature gardens because they drain well and aren’t heavy (in comparison to full concrete pots). They’re made from concrete and peat moss mixed together.
Hypertufa containers are popular for miniature gardens. You can actually make your own pots or get them from the garden center. These pots, unless planted with low-water-use succulents, are best for outside. They are porous and drain freely from all sides of the container, making them a messy choice for indoor plantings.
This hypertufa pot complements the plants and accessories inside it. It’s heavy when planted, though, and should find a permanent home outdoors once the project is finished.
You can choose containers that further a garden’s theme or containers that just hang in the background. The most obvious choices for neutral containers are round or square terra cotta pots. If you’re planting succulents, azalea-style pots (which are shallower) work well.
This terra cotta pot is 12 inches in diameter and 6 inches deep. It’s perfect for succulents.
Because the container isn’t flashy, your attention easily focuses on the plants in this Under the Sea garden.
If you’re planting a large outdoor garden, a shallow copper bowl makes a good unobtrusive container with plenty of room for lots of plants and accessories. If you wanted to plant a jumbo-sized outdoor mini-garden, you could use a copper fire bowl and stand. When using a container without external drainage, add rocks to the bottom of the container. If a big rainstorm is forecast, you might consider covering the garden with a tarp so that it does not become overly full of water.
This copper bowl sits on a short wrought-iron stand.
Terrarium containers run from everyday (Ball jars) to fancy (blown glass hanging terrarium containers like the one on the far left of the photo).
Terrarium containers are usually all glass, though if most of the container is clear glass, part of it can be opaque—usually the bottom or the top.
While most people think of a terrarium as a wholly enclosed environment, it doesn’t have to be. You can plant terrariums in open containers. The tall walls will still retain the humidity around the plants.
You can take any pot and turn it into a terrarium by using a garden cloche (pictured on the right side of the photo of the terrarium containers). Cloches were originally used to protect tender plants from frosts in English gardens. Today they make elegant tops to terrariums.
Look for terrarium containers in housewares and home-goods stores. Cake stands, trifle bowls, and even barware (decanters) can all make great containers.
If a container will hold soil, it can be made into a miniature garden pot. As with containers made specifically for plants, some are better for indoor gardens and some are better for outdoor gardens. Pottery, glass, and ceramic containers hold up longer than wooden or metal containers.
Look in thrift shops and at garage sales for interesting containers to plant. I found this wooden basket (opposite, bottom right) at a consignment shop. It’s surprisingly sturdy. It inspired the rustic farm-stand miniature kitchen garden that I planted in it. Because the garden is an indoor garden, I used a deep plastic liner inside the basket.
You can see that there are as many choices for containers as there are accessories for miniature gardens. Whatever you choose, just make sure the container isn’t an afterthought. The container’s durability, in particular, impacts the long-term growth, and therefore your enjoyment, of your miniature garden.
A large clamshell serves as a container for a miniature succulent garden at Rebecca Sweet’s house.
This succulent garden is planted in a wooden cigar box. The quote says, “You might give some serious thought to thanking your lucky stars you’re in Texas!”
An old red wagon provides a mobile platform for this miniature garden that showcases accessories at a garden center.
The wood of the basket blends well with the wooden posts of the “Vegetables for Sale” sign used in the garden (see next photo).
