Homemade Miniature Garden Dish Project

A miniature garden dish is a garden, usually theme-based, in a large dish, a cement or hypertufa trough, wooden box, large terra cotta saucer, large enamelware dish or even a lined basket.

How large or how small - to make one for indoors or outdoors, to use real plants and flowers or artificial or both, to make a simple garden dish or an elaborate one made in a large hypertufa trough - is all up to you. A wonderful source for making hypertufa items is to go to www.gardenweb.com and type in hypertufa.

To date I have made four miniature garden dishes. The first one I made was for my sister-in-law who has a passion for Fairies. The next two were made for a friend who purchased them for her daughter-in-laws. One was a miniature Angel garden dish and the other was a miniature Butterfly garden dish. The forth I made for my good friends birthday. Hers was a garden based dish, set around a greenhouse, pond and bench.

You can purchase miniature garden items or doll house accessories to make these garden dishes. You can purchase stuff from a local dime store, a doll house shop, thrift store or online. A great site for this is My Little World.
http://www.mylittleworld.co.uk/acatalog/Garden.html

I try to make as many of the pieces as I can from recycled objects. I also use a lot of natural items, sticks and stones and mosses are just perfect for these garden dishes.
Once you get started making one you start looking at all objects differently. All the sudden it's... what can I turn this into?

Below I will tell you some uses for certain items you can put in your miniature garden dish.

Stones: can be used to make pathways, put on houses and buildings, to make a waterfall or to fence in a garden.

Sticks: can make posts for bird houses, fences and mailboxes, logs for houses, arbors, trees, garden benches and chairs.

Popsicle Sticks: can be used for siding, flooring, garden tables, garden chairs, benches, fencing, roofs, wooden fruit crates, potting bench, picnic table, shelving and garden signs.

Water: you can make water by letting clear glue dry in a pond or you can buy a floral water mixture, but it is expensive. You can use a hot glue gun, to make water going down a waterfall.

Pond: you can use a small terra cotta saucer, put in a few stones, a small bowl or you can make a pond by carving out the shape in a block of Styrofoam, spray with vegetable oil to prevent from sticking and press in mortar or hypertufa all around about 1/2'to 3/4".

Garden Globe: a glass marble glued on a painted golf tee or a tiny glass Christmas bulb glued on a wooden candle holder, glued with sand and painted grey to look like cement

Cement Birdbath: is done the same way as the base of the garden globe and do the same to a small Styrofoam half sphere carved out to make the bowl for the birdbath.

Birdhouse: you can make a round birdhouse from a stick and a square or rectangle one from a piece of wood. Cut to desired length (I usually cut it between 1" and 2") and trim off to make the point of the roof. Roof the house with a piece of shingle, tin or popsicle stick. You can use a tiny drill bit to make the hole in the birdhouse or you can just mark a hole with a marker.

Arbor: you can make an arbor from bamboo sticks, popsicle sticks and copper tubing. You can glue or wire the arbor together. Grow a winding plant by it or use an artificial vine and a few tiny flowers.

Use a good potting soil mixture that will drain well. You may want to put some small stones in the dish first if you are going to be using any real plants, about ½" to ¾" will be good. Decorate as desired and then add plants.

Plants that will grow well in miniature garden dishes:

Ballerina Geranium - 8"
Dwarf Balloon Flower (platycoden) - 8"
Hens & Chicks - 6"- 8"
Hosta Venusta - 4"- 6"
Lady's Mantel - 4"- 6"
Mini Blue Bells (campanula) - 2"
Mini Blue Globe Daisy - 2"
Mini Button Yarrow - 1"
Rockcress - 4"- 6"
Tiny Rubies Dianthus - 2"
Tom Thumb Cottoneaster - 3"

Herbs that will grow well in miniature garden dishes:

Chamomile
Chives
Dill
Lavender
Lemon balm
Marjoram
Oregano
Parsley
Rosemary
Sage
Thyme

Its great using herbs, as you can use them as needed. Also herbs like lavender and lemon balm smell wonderful.

Here is a list of themes for miniature garden dishes you might enjoy making:

Angels, Birds, Butterflies, Bridal, Cottage Garden, Enchanted, Fairies, Frogs, Gnomes, Japanese, Ladybugs, Serenity, Turtles and wildlife all make nice gardens. Children really enjoy themes of Animals, Dinosaurs, Favorite Cartoon Characters, Renaissance, Space, Vehicles, Western and Wizard of Oz.

Garden dishes make thoughtful gifts. Something you can personalize for someone. You can give as a Birthday gift of their favorite theme, Birth of a baby, Bridal Shower gift, Christmas gift or an I Love You gift.