If you can’t wait for spring to arrive, indoor mini gardens can satisfy that overwhelming urge to get your hands in the dirt and start planting.

mini garden

Tabletop container gardens combine miniature plants or dwarf varieties with tiny decorative accessories to create beautiful, living scenes. In the dead of winter, when everything outside looks gray and dreary, small-scale gardens are cheerful and fun.

They also make great projects to keep young hands occupied during long weekends and school breaks!

Choosing Containers for Your Mini Garden

The possibilities are endless when it comes to containers for tabletop mini gardens. In fact, you can use just about anything.

Flower pots of any size make for great indoor tabletop gardens. But you don’t have to stick to traditional planting containers. Consider using a wicker basket, a glass fish bowl or small wooden crate. You could also choose a vintage punch bowl, terracotta saucer or a decorative cookie tin.

Choose a container that works well with the décor of your home and that is sturdy enough to hold your mini plants and accessories. If necessary, you can drill a few drainage holes in the bottom and slide a tray underneath to protect your furniture from drips.

If you can’t place holes in your container (in a fish bowl, for example) simply place a layer of pebbles on the bottom, then fill the container with potting soil. Then take care not to overwater.

Choosing Plants for Mini Gardens

True miniature and dwarf plant varieties do well in mini container gardens, but other small indoor plants can also be used effectively. Be sure to pair plants with similar growing conditions, however. You’ll have problems if their lighting and watering needs aren’t a match.

Several types of ferns and ivy plants make good choices for tabletop container gardens. You can also try tiny succulents or a small cactus. To add color, use miniature flowering plants, like African violet, kalanchoe or mini roses.

If you need some help choosing the right plants, the friendly, helpful staff at Millcreek Gardens is happy to provide our expert recommendations.

Adding Personal Touches to Mini Gardens

Miniature gardening is about creating a living scene, like a small-scale version of an outdoor landscape. To achieve this goal, you will likely need more than just plants. Consider using tiny accessories to add perspective, structure and design.

Embellish your mini gardens however you like, but don’t hesitate to have fun and get creative. Little decorative rocks could serve as a pebbled path, for example, and small twigs could be fashioned into a little fence or bench. Moss works well as a substitute for grass. And, if you’re crafty, you could mold an itty-bitty garden gnome or bird bath out of polymer clay.

These are perfect projects to get the kids or grandkids involved in this enchanting pastime!

If you prefer, you can also choose ready-made decorative accessories. A little stone fairy garden house, diminutive lawn and garden furniture, ceramic animals or a pint-sized wishing well could be the perfect complement to your living scene. Or, for a more cost-effective approach, choose furniture and accessories scaled for use in a dollhouse.

Would you like more tips on creating beautiful indoor project? Millcreek Gardens, Salt Lake City’s favorite garden center, can help. Stop by and talk to our friendly staff about all your gardening needs. We look forward to helping make your mini garden a fun and successful project.