Luscious little landscapes

Sukhmani Bhore

Love for gardening always conjures up the images of perfect landscapes, well-manicured lawns with trees, flowers and shrubs adding colour and contours to a vast space. However, with shrinking spaces such gardens have become a rarity and a luxury for a common man living in a small apartment or house with little space to spread his “green” wings. This has led to the popularity of miniature gardens that can fit even in a small space. 

“Big things come in small packages.” It’s so true… especially when it comes to miniature gardening.  A miniature garden is a term widely used for any small-sized garden — living or artificial. Dish gardens, terrariums, tray gardening, windowsill gardening, tea-cup gardening are all considered miniature gardening. 

Miniature gardening is just like life-sized gardening — only on a smaller scale. But it requires a combination of an artistic eye as well as the knowledge of different species of plants and their growth patterns. The plants to be grown in a miniature garden have to be chosen prudently.

Just like life-sized landscapes, the possibilities for miniature gardens are endless. In a miniature garden, dwarf trees and shrubs are paired with small-leafed perennials and groundcovers that make up the understory of the garden bed. These can be indoor or outdoor, live or artificial, in-ground or in a pot, small or large and filled with everything you can dream of.

Some of the plants that can be used in your small garden are:

• Succulents
• Cacti 
• Vines for wrapping around arbours 
• Dwarf variety chandani
• Variegated polyscias
• Acorus grass
• Variegated English ivy
• Begonia partita
• Most of the grass covers
• Miniature Aralia
• Draceana
• Alpinia
• Marenta plant
• Song of India
• Miniature ficus

However, at least one “man-made” garden accessory is needed to convey the scale to the viewer. This can be a birdbath or bench or a small figurine. The scale is the main key here.

A miniature garden should have a perfect blend of plants, hard surfaces, patios, and accessories —  all in proportion to each other. These should create a living garden scene, and this is what sets the miniature gardens apart. The  plants are combined with in-scale accessories and patios to make real, living mini garden scenes that can grow and weave themselves together for years in a container or in-ground with minimum care. 

When planted correctly, the plants and trees stay in scale with each other to create a sustainable, true garden in miniature. 

The magic of small gardens is that you can create something you can’t do or don’t want to in your backyard. “It’s a fantasy anyone can have.”

Miniature landscapes are an assemblage of plants, soil and imagination all rolled into one creative tiny scene. You can create these as interesting focal points in the garden, or you can create them for use in the home or office. 

However you plan them, just remember to have lots of fun!

---

How to start making your own miniature garden

First and foremost decide where you want your garden, indoors or outdoors? Is there full sun? Shade? Do you want it in-ground or in a container?

There's no need to stick to one particular style, but visualising or drawing a plan will help you get started. Do you want an English garden with arbors and wrought iron chairs or would you rather have a meditative Zen garden with gravel and sand and maybe a Buddha statue? Visualise what theme you want and then work on it.

Now shortlist plants that suit your requirements. Consult with the nursery and pick plants that can sustain in the required environment. Dwarf variety of plants, succulents and ground covers can be used in abundance to make the landscape look more natural. In case someone is interested, a bonsai can also be used.

For live plants, you need a container that is 6-8 inches deep for the garden to survive longer.  For artificial plants, you can plant in just about anything. Get whimsical and look for innovative containers like small tea cups, trays, old shoes, drawers, buckets, jars, baskets, etc. 

Preparation: In the case of a live garden, proper care has to be taken about the drainage. Your container must have a drainage hole at the bottom. If the pot does not have a drainage hole then, the first layer should be of gravel or broken brick pieces. Then top it off with planting soil. Soil is alive and dirt is dead. Soil contains lots of yummy organic matter and tiny critters in it that the plants need to live. It is genuinely ‘alive’. The soil must be mixed with a bit of sand, manure and coco peat. 

Fertiliser: Not every plant needs a fertiliser. In a miniature garden we don’t want the plants to grow too fast, we just want them to remain healthy. Pots older than 2 or 3 years will need mild fertiliser in the early spring and again in early to mid-summer.

Watering: Different plants have different watering needs. By building your miniature garden with plants that like similar conditions, it makes it easy to water and maintain. Remember that overwatering is just as harmful as under-watering.

Pruning: A lot of dwarf variety plants don’t need to be pruned, and yet, there are some that need to be pruned. You have to prune, cut and shape just as you would normally in your garden.

Accessories: Remember to look for and pick up things from around the house or you can use stuff from your kids’ doll house and get decorating. Stick with one scale for each pot or scene so that it looks cohesive. If the squirrel is too large and the garden bench too small, it won’t look right. It is important to remember when you are starting that the size of the accessories dictates the scale, not the plants.

If you travel a lot, you don’t have to worry, make a miniature garden with artificial plants. These look just as good, if not better, and can be accessorised more since there is no fear of accessories getting spoilt due to watering. These are completely hassle free, almost no maintenance, and last you a lifetime too.