How to Make an Elegant Little Teacup Garden

So a while back, my dear friend Mary sent me a photo of a darling little teacup garden. It had a tiny birdhouse in it, and reminded me of the fairy gardens we use to make when I was a kid.

I just had to try an elegant adult version, and what better time than almost-spring!?

This is the second tiniest teacup I have in my collection. (The smallest is this one.) You can’t really tell in the photo above, but as we go along you’ll get the perspective.

The garden is a mix of plants I hope will continue to grow, and flowers that will only last a little while. My plan is to replace those with fresh blooms as the season goes on.

This little teacup garden didn’t cost me a penny. I just used things I already had, and scavenged the little plants, moss, and pebbles from my yard. It was so easy! Here’s how I did it in about 30 minutes.

Choosing the Teacup for Our Teacup Garden

The first thing I did was choose a teacup. As I mentioned, this is one of the tiniest cups in my collection. And though the garden might outgrow the teacup in pretty quick order, I thought the cup was so cute! I figure I can always transplant it if I manage to keep it alive long enough.

(And of course if you don’t want to worry about maintaining live plants, you could always use faux.)

Then Choose the Plants

Anyway, I went out into the yard to see what seedlings I could find. It’s February as I write this, so there wasn’t too much going on out there. I did manage to find some things that never die, though. Ivy, wood hyacinth, bamboo, that weird baby-geranium-looking ground cover, and of course, moss. And don’t forget the pebbles!

Yes – I know that each of those plants has the potential to grow like crazy. And probably when they get together, I’ll have a case of world domination on my hands. But I’m willing to risk it and trim/transplant/run for my life if I have to!

Prepare the Teacup

If you don’t want to drink from your teacup ever again, you could plant directly into it. However, I want to someday reclaim my little teacup, so I lined it with some plastic wrap.

Then, in go the little pebbles for drainage. I actually gathered up more than the ones shown here. They should cover the bottom of your teacup. (Btw, doesn’t that moss and hyacinth look like broccoli?!)

Soil goes next – I used some potting soil from the big bag that lives in our garage. My moss was really fat, so I didn’t put in as much soil as I might otherwise have done.

Plants – the Foundation of Our Teacup Garden

Then it was time to plant the plants. I wanted something that kind of looked like trees. But since this was the best I could do, I went with it.

I put them around the edges, because I wanted the moss to look like a little lawn.

I had two pretty good sized pieces of moss, so I shaped one into a circle the size of the teacup . You can’t really tell from the picture, but I put a little behind the plants as well.

Flowers for Color and Scent

The daphne is just starting to bloom in our yard here in the Pacific Northwest. You can see below, how the blooms are just starting to open. But they smell divine! The most wonderful first sign of spring!

I just put a few little bunches around the edge of our teacup garden.

Cut Away the Plastic Wrap

Then I cut the excess plastic wrap around the edge of the teacup. In hindsight, I realized I should have made my moss circle a little bigger. I had a hard time sticking the plastic down inside so the moss would cover it like I thought it would.

But you can learn from my trials – make your moss big enough to cover your plastic! And maybe cut it before you put the moss in. You might have to experiment a bit.

An Elegant Little Animal in the Teacup Garden

The teacup garden photo that Mary sent me had a trellis, a birdhouse, and a bunny in it. So I thought I’d put a little animal or something in mine too.

I actually started the garden without any idea at all what I’d use, but I figured something would come to me as I went along. And after the garden was all done, it did!

A Little Bird Story

When I was about 10, one of our close family friends bought an art gallery. Mom used to go and help our friend with the inventory, etc., which meant that I spent a lot of time on my own, surrounded by art of every variety!

It was a fabulous time for me, and I learned to love painting, sculpture, collage, pottery, you name it. Of course I had my favorites, and even though I knew they’d gone to good homes when they were sold, I missed them.

One of my very favorites was a tiny brass bird on a little block of wood. I think it’s a quail, and I think it might have had a little quail top-knot originally. I SO didn’t want it to be sold!

So after much pleading, my mom eventually bought it and we brought it home. It lived on the kitchen window for the rest of Mom’s life, and when she died, it came to me.

It was no longer actually attached to the block of wood, (now quite water-stained,) but just sat on it, in the footprints of the many attempts to glue it back on!

So now he lives – precariously perched, since I haven’t tried to glue him back on yet – on my desk. When the teacup garden was all done, he just popped into my mind.

I ran in and grabbed him, and here he sits – watching over our tiny lawn. He kind of looks like he’s fallen asleep though, doesn’t he?

The Perfect Location for Our Teacup Garden

Seriously, the daphne smelled so gorgeous, that I hauled it around with me the whole rest of the evening.

And when it was time for bed, the teacup garden came with me and spent the night on the dresser.

I set it on a book for a little vignette while I was in picture-taking mode. But I think it’s going to live under the skylights on the bookcase, where it can get more light. Then we’ll see how our little teacup garden grows!

If you decide to make one of these cute teacup gardens too, let me know. I’d love to see different versions.

In the meantime, hope spring is starting where you live too. But if not, you can share my daphne and teacup garden!

Happy March, Everyone!

Teacup Shopping

If you love teacups as much as I do and want to start or add to your collection, Click HERE for the Shopping Page. Then scroll down and click on the picture of the teacup.

* This post includes affiliate links for your shopping convenience. If you click on a link and buy anything from that site within 24 hours, I get a small commission with no extra cost to you! It really helps toward the cost of publishing Mantel and Table, and I seriously appreciate it. (You can read the whole disclosure policy here.) Thanks so much for shopping with me!

And remember, a portion of anything you buy from MANTELandTABLE.com goes to Habitat for Humanity and Proud Ground. With our purchases, we get to help people build homes for their own mantels and tables!

Pin the Teacup Garden for Later

Have a Lovely Teacup Tuesday!

This Post Shared With

• Tuesday Turn About #89 – Hosted by Thistle Key Lane
• Thursday Favorite Things 03.04.21 – Hosted by Eclectic Red Barn
• Metamorphosis Monday #632 – Hosted by Between Naps on the Porch
• Sundays on Silverado #31 – Hosted by The House on Silverado
• Metamorphosis Monday 02.27.23 – Hosted by Between Naps on the Porch