Easy-to-Assemble Tabletop Water Garden

Container gardens can be as simple as a basin filled with water and plants. A few rocks form a shelf for the small ceramic frog, which will perch among water stargrass (Heteranthera dubia) and a variegated yellow water snowflake lily.

If your container is stone, cement or terra cotta, you'll want to glaze the inside of the pot to make it waterproof. If the container has a hole in the bottom, plug it with plumber's putty from both the inside and the outside. (Glaze and plumber's putty can be found at a hardware store.)

For the garden shown here, place a little gravel in the bottom of a basin. The pebbles will help you seat and level the container.