Make a Cactus Dish Garden

Learn how to plant this colorful dish garden filled with an assortment of cacti.

By: Melissa Caughey

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Cactus Dish Garden

Create a sleek, modern, and drought-tolerant cactus dish garden for your tabletop.

Gather Your Supplies

For this craft you will need: a planter / assorted cacti / cactus soil / gardening gloves / kitchen tongs / small stones / chopstick

Plant Preparation

Select a planter with drainage holes. Fill the planter 3/4 of the way with soil for cacti.

Begin Planting

Wearing gloves, add the cacti to the dish. Arrange the taller ones to the back or center and the shorter ones to the front or edges.

Helpful Tongs

Kitchen tongs can be a very helpful tool to plant and prevent sticks from the cactus thorns.

Fill in Spaces

Continue to fill in the planter. Select cacti of different colors and appearances for interest.

Tiny Pebbles

Top off the dish garden with a layer of tiny pebbles or stones. These are tiny green jade colored stones.

Small Spaces

Use a chopstick to coax the pebbles into hard to reach places to avoid unnecessary encounters with thorns.

Pebble Mulch

Adding pebbles not only adds visual interest. It also helps to prevent weeds and helps to regulate soil temperature.

Moon Cacti

Three grafted cacti are featured in this garden. Grafting is a popular gardening technique where two plants are combined to make one plant. When the two plants are compatible they will continue to grow as a single plant. This type cactus is formed by combining a Gymnocalycium and a Hylocereus.

Garden Care

Be sure to leave a bit of spacing between each cactus. This allows for growth. Be careful not to overwater. Cacti prefer their soil to dry out a bit between waterings. Watering needs will be higher in the summer and lower in the winter.

Flowering Cacti

This assortment of cacti will bloom at different times throughout the year. Here a red bloom is beginning to open and another new flower bud begins to emerge from the cactus's crown.

Cactus ID

Many of these cacti are available at most garden centers across the country.

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Photo By: Photo by Melissa Caughey

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