Tabletop garden – Black N Matching

Here, let me show you how to make this tabletop garden.

In this tabletop garden, I used mini Fittonia, dwarf Neanthe Bella Palm, and Chinese Evergreen. All of these plants can grow well in partial shade, as well as indoor.

Because this is my Mother’s Day present for my mom, I handmade a heart-shaped S and put it in the garden. It is not only my initial, but also my mom’s (Susana), as well as my brother’s (Stephen). If you don’t have a particular design that you want to put in your garden like I did, you can consider using cookie cutters, which make good decorations in your tabletop gardens.

Here are some tabletop gardens that I have used cookie cutters:
Tabletop Garden – After Jurassic
Tabletop Garden – My Star
Tabletop Garden – Double the Love

Chopstick is a common gardening tool for Chinese. I like using a chopstick when I am potting my plants. And in Japanese Garden, Gururaj shares how he uses his pair of chopsticks in his garden. I bet many Japanese gardeners use chopsticks when they are in their gardens as well.

Besides chopstick, my pointed-tip tweezers is another gardening tool that I have found very helpful. In fact, since the objects in my tabletop gardens are very small, for greater precision, I prefer my tweezers over a pair of chopsticks when I am working on my tabletop gardens.

I made this tabletop garden on May 9, a day before Mother’s Day. It looked fine, with only a small part of the “S” being covered by the mini Fittonia. However, on Mother’s Day, which was just a day later, I found the plants had covered almost the whole “S”. This was due to the nature that plants – the tendency of reaching towards the light source.

I got reminded again that, unlike oil painting or sculpture, the matters involving in a tabletop garden is organic and will change along with time and its surrounding environment.  And yes, that’s the fun part too!

Because this was my first time drilling drainage holes, I chose a wooden Japanese bowl as my container for I knew that it would be much easier to drill holes on wood than on glass. And as expected, this was so easy.

Drill the Holes

In order to hang my container garden, besides the drainage holes, I have also made three evenly spaced holes around the rim of the container. Make sure the holes are large enough to accommodate the size of the rope that will be used to hang the garden.

Pilea peperomioides is one of those plants that grow well in water (check out this post – Suitable Plants for Crystal Soil and Hydroculture for a list of other plants that grow well in water). So, if you are growing the plants in water, you don’t need to make any drainage hole.

Pot the Pilea Peperomioides

I put a piece of landscape fabric at the bottom of the bowl to keep the soil from washing through the drainage holes. Then I repotted the pilea peperomioides into its new container. For better adaptation, I always keep some of the soil that is around the roots of the plant when I repot my plants.

Hang with Ropes & S Hooks

I simply tied a rope at each of the three holes and tied all three ropes together at the top. Then, with the S-hook that I made by using plier and some wire I found at home, I hanged my container garden – Money Bowl on the window guard of my room.  And if you don’t want to make your own S-hook, you can find them available in different sizes in most hardware stores.

So, with my garden container, my plants, pots, moss, etc, I was all ready to make my tabletop garden – Bento Box!

If you want to learn more about choosing garden container and indoor plants for this tabletop garden, check this post – How to Choose Garden Container and Indoor Plants for Tabletop Garden – Bento Box.

Repotting

Due to the limited space in our tabletop garden, we might want to repot our plants into some smaller pots so for them to fit better into our tabletop garden. Besides repotting to a smaller pot, we can also take the plant out from its pot and use moss to wrap the roots and soil.

Orchids – No Repotting

I didn’t repot the orchids, but just trimmed the top of the pots to make them less visible.

Adding Moss on Top of the Orchid Roots & Inside the Garden Container

I added some moss on top of the orchid roots as an additive. This helps the orchid roots to breathe, and at the same time, keeps the roots moist. In addition, I also added some moss inside the garden container as padding.

Covering the Pots or Roots with Moss

Not all plants in our tabletop garden need to have their pots be covered with moss, but only those pots that cannot be fully hide inside the garden container. And if space in your tabletop garden is limited, you can take the plants out of their pots and wrap the roots and soil with moss as well. In this case, the moss holds the roots and soil together, acting more or less like a container of the plants.

Here shows the details of  wrapping pots or roots with moss.
You can also learn more about moss in this post – Sphagnum Moss & Sphagnum Peat Moss

Arranging the Plants in the Garden Container

Next, I started putting the plants that I especially bought for this tabletop garden into my garden container. Because I wanted to put many different types of indoor plant into my tabletop garden, I was targeting small potted plants when I did my shopping.

In addition, I bought potted plants with different heights. By using different levels in our tabletop garden, we can give the illusion of having more space. Even if our garden container is a small one, we can make the garden container look bigger than its actual size by introducing height into the garden. For my tabletop garden – Bento Box, I put the taller plants at the back and the shorter plants in the front. I also put a plant on top of the pot/root of another plant to create different levels.

If you want to learn more about choosing garden container and indoor plants for this tabletop garden, check this post – How to Choose Garden Container and Indoor Plants for Tabletop Garden – Bento Box.

Final Touch

As a final touch, I added an ivy plant into my tabletop garden. I twisted and curled its vine around my other plants. And to secure the positions, I used some tiny clips to hold together the ivy plant and the stems of others.

In addition, I have added two little red bows on my pretty orchids.

Related Posts of Tabletop Garden – Bento Box

Tabletop Garden – My Bento is Almost Ready!
Indoor Garden Gallery – Tabletop Garden – Bento Box
How to Choose Garden Container and Indoor Plants for Tabletop Garden – Bento Box?
How to Wrap Pots or Roots with Moss
Sphagnum Moss & Sphagnum Peat Moss
How to Water Tabletop Garden – Bento Box

I realized the need to remake my tabletop garden – Ocean Breeze when I watered the garden for the first time after its making. I shouldn’t put the stones and marbles at the bottom of the container in the first place, at least, not so many of them.

Originally, I put the stones and marbles there for three reasons.

1. To take up some space of the big container
2. For decoration purpose, to give the garden more colors and different texture
3. To give my little turtle a more solid ground to stand

But with this thick layer of stones and marbles placed underneath the crystal soil, the crystal beads were kept too high to absorb the water that I poured into the container. So I took all the stones and marbles away, but left only a few big ones for my turtle to stand.

I took everything out from the container.  I rinsed and drained off the crystal soil beads that were in the container and added in some new ones.  For the stones and marbles, I took away all of them, but only three big ones.

If you want to know how to use crystal soil, you can check out this post – How to Pot a Plant with Crystal Soil .

Now, with only three stones, the crystal soil beads can soak in all the water they want while my little turtle still have a spot to stand

Tabletop garden makes wonderful home decor.  And choosing indoor plants with similar light and water requirements is one of most important rules when designing a tabletop garden. So what if we want to put some plants with very different cultivation requirements together in the same tabletop garden?

The answer is … use smaller container(s) within the main container of the tabletop garden. And here, let me show you how I use both a succulent and some aquatic plants to create my tabletop garden – Merry Christmas.

Water Roots

Plants that are rooted in water are called “water roots”. You probably have seen a beautiful bamboo stick in a pot of pebbles filled with water before. Like the bamboo, there are many plants that grow very well in water, including pothos, wandering jew, and philodendron. Growing plants in water is easy and more convenient too (I love it much )!

Soil & Charcoal

Because the container of this tabletop garden does not have a drainage hole at the bottom, I have added a thick layer of horticultural charcoal for better drainage. And as for soil, I am using a cuctus and succulent soil mix for the echeveria.

Watering

Add fresh water into the container of the water roots when the water level gets low. As for the echeveria, I water mine every 2-3 weeks. Watering amount and frequency depends greatly on the size of the container, the weather, and many other factors. One only knows when she does it by herself and observe. Just remember, echeverias are adapted to survive with very little water. And since there is no drainage hole in the container for this tabletop garden, overwater can potentially be more of the problem than underwater.  

Light

Bright, indirect light – While the echeveria loves sunlight, most water roots prefer bright, yet indirect light.

Almost anything can be used as a container in your garden…
Your imagination is your only limitation…

This has almost become a cliche for it can be heard from every gardener or read in every book of container gardening.

Yet, nevertheless, it’s so true.  In fact, this is what make container gardening so much fun.  We can just be creative and playful and use whatever material we have on hand to make containers into certain sizes, colors, functions that suit our specific needs and styles.

And yesterday, I tried to make a container with a soda can.  I have especially chosen a can of coke light for I like how its silver and red match nicely with the little beet I bought earlier.

Here is how I made the soda can container. 

First, I compared the size of the soda can, the beet, and the pot to determine how big of a container should I make (e.g. how deep should I make the cut, etc).

Since I couldn’t find a pair of scissors sharp enough, I used a hand pruner to cut the can.

Then, with a pliers, I bent and rolled down the pieces one-by-one (sometimes, it could be easier by just using hands).

I poked 3 holes at the bottom of the can for adequate drainage.  While I did this after all the cutting and bending, I would suggest you to do this first, before anything else.  It will make life a bit easier for you.

Put a piece of landscape fabric at the bottom of the can to keep the soil from washing through the drainage hole.

Next, I carefully took out the beet…

and loosened up it’s root a bit.

Before putting in the beet and soil, I put in some horticultural charcoal for better drainage (Perlite or vermiculite works just as well).

After filling up the can with soil, I watered the beet and it’s done.

I probably can keep this cool-looking coke light beet on my desk as a table decoration for a few weeks. When the plant overgrows the soda can, it’s time for me to repot it and find it a new, bigger home