Here's mine

Boy, that was fun!
a garden in an hour, (the big one is on year 7, heigh-ho)
I'm a scale freak, so alyssum is the only flowering thing I could find.
Everything else was on hand.

It's awfully tempting to put too much stuff in it, isn't it?
I settled for the bagpiper and the dancing clown.
Since that's a spirit house (needs repair) I figured the spirit
would have a nice welcome when it shows up.

What a wonderful little garden! You got the scale perfectly. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

How cute, I love it! It looks like you could just walk right up to the door of the house!

noknok, like you, the scale has to be right and I love the look of your's. Is that boxwood in the upper left?

Thank you!
Bugme, yes, it's the 'suffruticosa', they happened to have one at Lowes,
it's supposedly the only one that puts up with life at 6", but hardy? I don't know.

What do you do with minigardens in containers in winter anyway?
I was going to leave mine out, kinda heavy to move.

So far. perusing threads, no-one seems to have mentioned the
antiquity of miniature gardens and landscapes.
People have been having fun with them for thousands of years
and the demographics range from Ming emperors to model train nuts.
The latter have serious scale problems, especially oo scale, where
people are less than 1" tall!

here's a Chinese one:
http://www.showchina.org/en/Gallery/Culture/200711/t133076.htm

If I were to do it on the ground, I think I'd be more comfortable with
about 1/4 scale (6' person=15"), so you could take it in standing up.
And it would increase the plant/props list enormously!

My gardens are big and loud and demanding, so I wanted this one
to be quiet, simple and easy.

noknok, that link had impressive miniatures! Thanks for sharing. And I agree scale has more than a lot to do with the finish.

I kept my little tree outdoors in it's tuffa pot and it did fine but, I am in a milder zone than you. A boxwood should do ok outdoors though.

Love the mini garden
Love the container!
Love the base it is on

Very classy.

What did you use as stepping stones and gravel? And which plant is the grassy flat plant near the entrance, by the path(pretty much in the center between the spirit house and tree)?

You did a fantastic job! I love it.

I did one, two nights ago, & winced when I read that you said:

Sundownr, looking closely, I'm not sure those plants are alive actually.
The whole thing is inside a museum, so most of the plants are probably man made,
that kind of makes it less interesting, but I can see how weather would spoil
all the miniatures pretty fast!

Thanks Bugme, I think I'll maybe cover up the whole thing with a tarp
when the snow comes, it's not coming in.

Seedpicker, thank you, everything was here except the plants. That
made it really quick. The plywood was from an old display turntable somebody broke,
the chinese baby bathtub I got on ebay years ago and the sewing machine
base was from a junk store.

My property has several big piles of stone, all sizes and shapes, want some?
everytime i dig a hole there's more:o)
The gravel is "stone dust" (1/4"- dust) I keep around for concrete and such.

I'll try to bring home the plant labels tomorrow, for the little sedge's name.
A local nursery had all the mini plants.
I've wanted an excuse to get Leptinella for YEARS!

I have no restraints whatsoever in my big gardens, so it was a nice change
to keep this one simple. I appreciate other peoples' whacky and whimsical
mini-gardens, with little regard for scale and full of pigs and squirrels and stuff.
There's a definite fairytale charm there, I'm not sure I could do it, but I like to visit!

Here's a picture from the Stonecrop Gardens in NY, my friend admiring a tiny
rock garden in a huge "trough", that just stuck in my mind for years.
Talk about restraint! But it was magical.

I think what must be "magical" is the minimalist look of it........one can use the imagination to place all kinds of objects in it and besides, you CAN see the mountains for the trees!!

noknok,

No doubt that the museum mini is all fake plants.

I won't create a miniture garden until get a fence around the garden area to deter big critters and just deal with the elements. That leaves only one problem, little structures and bodies being stolen by squirrels! I may have to cement everything in place.

Seedpicker, I misread your inquiry, the "flat" plant between the house
and the tree is Azorella trifurcata minima (z 3-6, TX may be too hot?).
It's a really tight, stiff plant, not very "grassy" up close.

The sedge, since I'm at it, is Carex caryophhylla 'Beatlemania' (z5-9).
It apparently forms a clump 24"w x 6"h, if it does, it will have to move
eventually.
Sundownr, I suppose the deer can just come and graze here, unless
the setup spooks them.
In the past, I've found that raised beds/containers foil the rabbits, but
squirrels, I don't know...

This forum is hopping! Good addition.

Thanks, I'll have to google that one, and see if I can stretch the zone, or not...
-T

noknok, My miniature garden is going in my new berry bed & herb location (between 2 buildings). Here's a previous post in another forum: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=5139157 I plan on small/short fences and gates to keep out the roaming dogs and deer. The squirrels and cats will do as they please, so I'll just have to figure it out as I go.

noknok-I looked it up, and can't find but one link. It isn't even in the plantfiles, yet.

Maybe you should add it as a listing, and add a close up picture of it. It looks like a reallyl neat little plant.

very nice

Sundownr, finally looked at your link, maybe the berries will keep
the animals happy :o)

I think a herb garden is a great candidate for a miniature garden,
most herbs have small, fine-textured leaves and stems.
Basil would be like a huge tropical. Creeping thyme is like a shrubbery

Remember, if your feet are 1/2" long, pea-size or chick pea-size
gravel would be about as inviting a path as a scree of small boulders.
You gotta be nice to the little people, they can get nasty...
Of course, a rocky coast (picture) works for them like it works for us
as long as there are some small steps.

Seedpicker, I will do that when i get around to it, my gardens are
screaming for weed/mulch, there's not enough me to go around just now.

noknok, My miniature garden is for toads! I'll post a picture (or link to one) after I get it set up. I'm still "building." I have my toad abode, a few plants, and a toadpool. I'm using river pebbles and sand for my pathways. I am concerned aboyt scale regardless of the inhabitants.

noknok, you gave me an idea! These quaint figurines followed me home from eBay!?! The largest piece is 4" tall and about 6" long. They are much more colorful than my pic, and I can't wait to use them.

I have a mini boxwood also, called "Kingsville Dwarf" - I'll have to move it into a mini garden sometime!

I really like your garden!

I too am a scale nut. For my project, just starting see here for details http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/877263/ I just rejected the idea of a house, because I couldn't make fairies small enough to live there, and I want a niad in my pond. I also rejected an Asian scene because the water plants wouldn't look right with the small figures, so it's fairies to scale.