Sometimes I think the sinks and troughs look a little heavy in relation to the plantings. Certainly they are heavy, and almost impossible to move, when filled with soil. But I’ve found a goodly number of acceptable substitutes. First, of course, I shopped my favorite junk yard and found the round concrete planter and the wash-tub lid that served as containers for my first sink gardens. I also saw possibilities in a big old butter tub that could be cut down, and in a leaky birdbath.
Some of today’s building tiles are perfectly beautiful and, if shallow enough, could be fitted with a metal or wooden bottom. They come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. Thick, old wood is another possibility. I’m thinking of some weathered planks we found at the seashore last summer; they’d make a handsome and sturdy container for a wind-blown, woodsy garden.
Miniature garden of dwarf evergreens, Cyclamen neapolitanum, and tiny trumpet narcissi not yet blooming
In designing or selecting a container, you have few rules to go by. It should be strong and weather-resistant, of course, because it is to be placed outdoors. It must have drainage holes in the bottom, so fallen rain won’t stand in it. It should be deep enough (six to eight inches) to give small trees and plants root-room. And artistically, it should be in harmony and proportion with the garden to be planted in it, not as a feature in itself, but as a subordinate element in the picture.
Unless a sink garden is to be placed on top of a wall or some other existing support, it will probably need a base to hold it two or three feet off the ground. This can be made of cement blocks, rustic brick, tile, or concrete, according to the design of the container itself.
PLANTS FOR SINK GARDENS
Unlike bonsai, these plants are not to be dwarfed, they are dwarf by nature. Miniature perennials, such as Calceolaria biflora, never top two inches, nor do some of the tiny narcissus species. Some trees have never been known to grow taller than six inches. And if you can’t find trees that are small at maturity, you can find many that grow so slowly they’ll stay in proper scale (even without pruning) for five years or more. There are miniature garden plants of all habits and shapes—stiffly erect, tufted, bush-like, sprawling, creeping, hanging, climbing—and even pinhead-size water plants for tiny pools.
Actually, there are miniature plants in every horticultural category—annuals, biennials, perennials, bulbs, shrubs, trees, aquatic plants, and wildlings—and most of them are suitable for sink gardens. You have only to select those that are in scale and sympathy with your design, and that are culturally compatible, one with the other. You can grow many of them from seeds or cuttings. Miniature perennials are available in widest variety from growers of alpine and rockery plants. Trees and shrubs can be bought by mail from suppliers of small plants for bonsai work. Native and aquatic plants are plentiful from mail-order wild-flower houses.