A 6 year old Miniature Garden with a Tompa Dwarf Spruce (Picea abies 'Tompa'), Carpet Bugleweed with the purple flowers (Ajuga) and White Thyme (Thymus serpyllum 'Alba')
Turn Your Balcony into Your Own
Backyard: Miniature Garden style!
So you wake up on spring mornings and wish you could do some gardening. But living in a condo makes the task a little more challenging. It’s especially frustrating when you begin your work week with a co-worker bragging about their backyard gardening adventures all weekend?
Do you turn green with envy? Or do your green thumbs itch for a chance to get at some gardening too….on your own turf that is. Now you can.
Miniature gardening is a wonderful way to have your garden and tend to it too! It’s not a small herb garden and it’s not a garden that will need redoing in a month. It’s a true living miniature piece of art!
When you put a mini garden together, it can last in a container for up to six years. There’s very little maintenance and you need that. Remember, that’s partly why you’re living in a condo or apartment in the first place.
With mini gardening, there’s no hard work, no mess, no hauling plants and soil, and no lugging water from the sink everyday. Remember the plant that you thought would fit on your balcony, how it’s grown two-fold by mid-season and needs replacing? Dwarf plants, in miniature gardens, are the ideal solution to that problem.
A miniature garden can be as busy, or as simple, as you like. Change it to reflect the seasons, occasions or just for fun.
All you need is a favorite container, a living miniature tree, some miniature garden “bedding plants,” a real mini patio and a miniature birdbath for a focal point. It’s a complete garden that needs you and you need it. Your own private, living mini world!
To get some ideas check out the mini garden galleries on my website: www.twogreenthumbs.com
Or purchase quick and easy Do-It-Yourself Miniature Garden Kits. They have everything you need to set up your new miniature garden. Just pick the right plants for the light that’s available on your balcony and have fun!
On Monday morning, be sure to tell everyone how much you enjoyed gardening on the weekend!
Do you have any plant recommendations for those of us that have only very hot and sunny balconys? In particular, what tiny tree like plants can withstand heat well?
Hi Christine!
Thanks for your question!
I love young sedums and small-leafed succulents for the hot and sunny spots. There are a great many different kinds of shapes and sizes that you can use as “trees” and “shrubs” for a miniature garden too.
Junipers and Mugo Pines are terrific too – I have small ones in 4″ pots in my online store. You can really create a nice setting by using one or two of these in a small pot, then use the sedums and small succulents as the “bedding plants.”
Keep in mind, just because they do very well in the heat and sun, they would still like to be watered on a regular basis.
I love this mini garden……..but then again, I love ALL your mini gardens!!! I look at your blog on a daily basis just to see the newest entry and this one’s a charmer!! Thanks so much for the inspiration. Keep them coming, please. 🙂