by Liz Smitten, Certified Master Gardener

Originally printed in Lubbock Golden Gazette, May, 2006

One of the most rewarding things about plants is that they can be enjoyed on any scale, from the grandest and most formal of gardens to a simple pot of tulips and hyacinths on the window ledge.  My husband’s grandmother nurtured a lovely garden for many years, but in her eighties she moved to a much smaller house with no garden, bringing to her new home only a very large and ancient African violet which she placed in the dining room window, and a blue glazed Chinese pot of yellow Marguerite daisies, set on the front porch as a welcome to visitors.  For years she looked after these two plants with the same tenderness as she had her full-blown garden, and, I believe, got the same joy and satisfaction from their care. 

I too have tended my traditional in-ground garden for a number of years, however this past spring I discovered the sheer delight of making a garden in miniature by using an old, unglazed strawberry pot filled with a variety of small-leafed sedums and capped with the cascading falls of a silvery dichondra argentea.  This is a garden which takes up very little space, can be placed in a variety of locations depending on whether it is filled with sun or shade-loving plants, is easy to prepare and maintain, can contain either annuals or perennials, and is inexpensive to create because the smallest sized nursery-grown plants (or even pass-along plants from friends and neighbors) are used.  The basic supplies include a strawberry pot; good quality potting soil selected for the specific type of plants  (cacti, for example, require a special potting mix); a selection of plants; a plant dolly if the gardener wants to move the pot periodically; a watering can; and plant food based on the type of plants, applied according to directions, but at half strength from that specified.  The type of pot to use, whether glazed or unglazed, is listed in the section on recommended plants.  An unglazed pot should always be used for cacti, sedums and herbs to prevent root rot.  Potting soil should be moist but not wet, and an unglazed pot should be thoroughly wetted so it doesn’t absorb moisture from the potting soil or plant root ball.

Fill the pot with potting soil to the lowest side openings.  Remove the plants from the nursery pot, keeping the soil surrounding the roots intact.  If the roots are matted, gently untangle or cut them part-way through at the bottom of the root ball.  Working from the outside of the strawberry pot, insert the roots and soil into the lowest side openings and firmly push extra soil into the opening as needed to cover the roots.  Add more potting soil to the next level of openings, tamping the soil down gently from the inside of the pot so there is good contact with the plant roots, and repeat the process until potting soil covers the highest side openings.  Place the last plant or plants in the top of the strawberry pot, with the soil line at least one inch below the rim of the pot.  Use the remaining potting soil to fill the top of the pot only to the soil line. Water gently to prevent washing the soil from the side openings.

Recommended Plants

Full sun, unglazed pot - a variety of small, round cacti, topped with a larger cactus of a different form.  A selection of succulents would give the same effect of a Southwest garden.  My original planting of various ground cover sedums with differing leaf and bloom colors, topped with dichondra argentea ‘silver falls’ should be perennial if given water over the winter.  A miniature herb garden could be created, using either different varieties of low-growing and cascading thymes, or a mixture of curly and flat-leaf parsley, small-leaf variegated sage, cascading oregano, silver edge horehound, and bloody sorrel or salad burnet on the top.

Full sun, glazed or unglazed pot – alyssum in white, rose, and lavender, mixed with a deep purple trailing dwarf petunia woulJuly 19, 2007aring gardener could try different miniature roses, which would definitely require a glazed pot and careful tending.

Partial or full shade, glazed pot – the different cultivars of lobelia, in shades of light and dark blue, and white, or perhaps some of the mixed colors, and capped with the dichondra argentea ‘silver falls’ would brighten a shady spot.  Two variations of annuals with warmer color schemes are a mixture of polka dot plants and coleus (keeping the coleus pinched so they don’t grow leggy), or the perennial heucheras, which now come not only with purple foliage, but also lime, mango, burgundy, silver, and orange.

n short, with a strawberry pot, a bit of soil, a few small plants, and a little imagination, anyone with the heart of a gardener can create a great garden in the smallest of spaces.