How To Make Your Own Mini Zen Garden From Scratch

Zen gardens are known to be soothing and relaxing, so much so that mini zen gardens became a thing too. We’re talking about tiny little planters and green elements which you can keep inside the house, on the desk, on the balcony or even out on the porch. They’re compact and they bring freshness and beauty into our lives and they’re also really fun and enjoyable to put together. As it happens, we have a few lovely project ideas to share with you on this theme.

Mini Succulent Zen Garden

A desktop zen garden is something small that you can keep on your desk or in your general workspace area so you can have something relaxing and beautiful to look at and to be able to concentrate better. There are many different ways to make a desktop zen garden but generally they involve using some sort of container like a planter, some greenery and pebbles, stones and various such elements. All of these items need to be put together in a harmonious way and you can find out more about this sort of project from gardenista.

Mini Succulent Zen Garden

You can also give your mini garden a story. For example, this is a beach-inspired fairy garden and it has fine sand, blue glass granules which symbolize the water and a bunch of tiny props like a fence, a lounge chair, a beach sign and also a few plants as well tucked behind the fence. It’s a lovely design and if you’re interested in finding out more details about it and how this fairy garden was made you can head over to shrimpsaladcircus.

Mini Succulent Zen Garden

The mini zen garden featured on thirstyfortea is looking wonderful as well. This is more traditional approach which uses very symbolic elements such as a tiny Buddha statue and a mini rake for the sand. You can make something similar using a bamboo shadow box frame and you can add moss, sand and decorative stones to bring it to life and make it look authentic. It can be small enough to fit on your desk.

Mini Succulent Zen Garden

A mini zen garden can also be super simple. You don’t need a bunch of figurines to make it look lovely and you don’t necessarily need any special supplies either. For the container you can use any shallow dish and you can fill it with sand and a few knick-knacks such as an air plant or two, a few small pebbles and potentially a mini rake so you can play with the sand whenever you want to relax and find peace and tranquility. Here you can see two versions, one with white sand and one with black sand and they both look beautiful. Check out themerrythought for more details.

Mini Succulent Zen Garden

If you’re worried about the plants and having to care for them, consider using faux succulents in your little zen garden. They’re maintenance free and some actually look super realistic. You can simply go ahead and fill a glass bowl or container with sand, add the plants and call it a day. Instead of a special miniature rake you can just use a pencil to draw in the sand whenever you’re bored or stressed out. Check out dwellbeautiful for more details and ideas.

Mini Succulent Zen Garden

Instead of actual plants or faux greenery designed to look realistic, you can try a different approach and make your own cute decorations for the mini zen garden. These for example and a tiny cacti made using green acrylic teardrop beads and small cone spike beads. They definitely stand out and look interesting and you can make as many of these as you want or combine several beads to make larger cacti. Be sure to check out blog.darice to find out more about this simple project.

Mini Succulent Zen Garden

There are kits that you purchase and which include a few essentials for making a mini zen garden but you can also improvise and gather everything yourself. You can use any shallow bowl or tray made of wood, glass, metal or whatever material you prefer. The most important part is the fine sand which you fill the container with. Once the sand is in place, you can add things like small rocks, seashells, beads and tiny plants or figurines in order to create a scene. More details and inspiring ideas can be found on confessionsofanover-workedmom.

Mini Succulent Zen Garden

You can play around with different types of sand and even incorporate colored sand into your mini zen garden design. We really like the combination of black and white sand featured on proflowers, especially in combination with this particular wooden container. You can also add a few drops of essential oil to the sand just to tickle the senses a bit more and create a more relaxing atmosphere. In any case, simplicity is usually the key so don’t add too many details if you can help it.

Mini Succulent Zen Garden

There’s plenty of inspiration to be found in all the mini zen gardens available in stores and online, like this one from etsy for instance. You might be able to replicate the design if you like it but you can also add your own twist to it and remove or add details as you see fit. In any case, this would make a lovely gift for someone and it could be cool to have it personalized in some way to really make it special.

Mini Succulent Zen Garden

If you’re really feeling inspired and you want to share the joy of having a mini zen garden with all your loved ones, perhaps it could be nice to make little favor kits for them for your next big event. You can use some small boxes and put a bit of sand inside, a tiny air plant and a two or three shells, beads or pebbles and this way each guest can have their own mini zen garden to take home. Who knows, maybe this will inspire them to make their own bigger versions. Check out ruffledblog for more details.

Mini Succulent Zen Garden

Zen gardens don’t need to be super fancy. In fact, it’s simplicity and pureness that makes them so beautiful and inspiring in the first place. With that in mind, look around for any supplies that you could use, such as a small box, some sand and a few small rocks and maybe an air plant as well. Any cardboard box would look and you can always upgrade to something else later on as you get more ideas. You can turn this into a little kit that you can offer as a gift. The idea comes from seevanessacraft.

Mini Succulent Zen Garden

This mini zen garden uses white and black sand and that gives it a balanced and harmonious look plus it makes it more interesting. In addition to that it has a few small succulents and rocks as decorations which are placed in a paper cup that’s covered with sand and becomes invisible. You can use a tiny rake or chopsticks or a pencil to draw in the sand and make all sorts of patterns or just make random lines and relax while doing it. Check out gardentherapy for more details about this project.