The change meant swapping the old large two metre diameter dish for a much smaller one and having done that what to do with the old dish? There must be many of you who were faced with this problem as mine sat around for ages until I decided it would make an excellent bowl for a succulent garden. It’s now been established for over two years and looks really good so here are the step by step procedures so that you may turn your piece of junk into a really nice miniature garden.

Find a location where it will receive lots of sun and can be comfortably viewed and weeded. Position three concrete building blocks on which can be mounted the bracket of the dish and then the dish. Make sure the rim is level. Put in a 30 mm drainage layer of coarse builders ballast or other stones. Prepare a good free draining succulent mix comprised of one part loam, one part compost and four parts pumice or other coarse stony material. Don’t forget to mix in several good handfuls of bonemeal. You will need to prepare quite a good quantity of this mix as it’s a large dish and it can be mounded up slightly in the centre. If you have an appropriate sized rock or two these can be semi buried near the centre. Now you are ready for planting! As it is such a large dish it will accommodate a largish plant or two so you could use an aloe, aeonium or agave or all three if the species chosen are not too big and position them near the centre of the dish near the rocks. You can then infill with smaller plants and maybe include little aloes, gasterias, crassulas, echeverias, sedums and others. It will look good to include a flowering mesemb and/or senecio so that they can trail over the edge of the dish. Water only once every week or two during the dry weather. You will find many suitable plants at the garden centre so it’s worth a visit to choose your selection. Have fun and enjoy!

Plants Galore Garden Centre
Directions: Use the Limuru Road from Muthaiga and continue past the Village Market and the turning into Runda.  200 m beyond the Runda turning take the murram track on the right hand side, where there is a Plants Galore sign board. After the bridge over the river fork right; the Centre is 100 m on the right. You can’t miss it!
Telephone: 020 2446103 or 0773 612589
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