Making a Living Table Centrepiece
Ever wondered what to do with those old moss – covered bricks at the end of the garden? With a bit of imagination and some very common garden plants they can be turned into a living table centrepiece that is very low maintenance, hardy and will certainly be a talking point at any dinner party. You will need four things to make one of these, a saucer, some gravel, a brick and a plant – its that easy!
Choosing a Suitable Base
I have chosen a 30 cm black plastic saucer as the container for the gravel as I wanted a container that would blend in with my chosen gravel colour. As I am placing this container in a conservatory, I am not going to drill any drainage holes in it, but I would recommend drilling three small drainage holes in the base if this is going to be placed outside, as rainfall will quickly fill the saucer leading to algae growth on the gravel and waterlogging of the plant roots.
For the gravel under the brick I am using black basalt gravel, this gives a good contrast to the red tones of the brick but you could choose any gravel to your own taste. Whatever you decide to use, you will need to wash it thoroughly to remove any dust or clay attached to the gravel, the easiest way of doing this is to put some in a garden riddle and jet it with a hose end gun whilst stirring it around with a shovel, this ensures all the surface area of the gravel is thoroughly washed. Once drained you can put the gravel into the saucers, and you will then be ready to carefully place your bricks on it.
Planting Up
The more cracked, interesting or moss covered the bricks are the better, if you have any which are manufactured with holes already in, it will save you the hardest job on the project which is drilling a suitable hole. I have drilled these with a diamond tipped coring drill, the sort of thing that builders use to drill through your wall to push the sink waste pipe through. Its quite a dusty job but quite quick, if you pick relatively soft bricks, I would not recommend engineering bricks as they are far too hard!
Bed the brick well down into the gravel to settle it, and place the odd stone up the side of the brick to break any straight lines. Doing this leads to a more natural appearance.
Once the bricks are placed as you want them, and they don’t have to be dead centre, they are ready to be planted up. I have grown some sempervivum in plugs which are ideal as they quickly spread. You only really need one mini plant to plant up in each of the 50mm holes that go right through the brick to allow the roots to colinise the gravel beneath.
Place some very gritty / sandy compost in the bottom of the hole to help ensure the plant sits at the right level, firm the compost pushing it well down into the gravel beneath and place the plant in the hole. Using a pointed trowel feed a small amount of the compost around the edges of the plant. Turning the plant in the hole will help the compost to fall down the sides and gradually filling all the space between the plant and the edges of the hole in the brick.
Any compost that is spilled on the brick can be lightly brushed around the plant with an artist’s paint brush. Gently give the plant a light water to settle the compost rather than wash it out of the hole and the job is complete.
Leave to Develop & Flourish
When the Sempervivum establishes it will spread out over the brick and down the sides and onto the gravel, they are really easy to train where you want them to spread to and will readily root into cracks in the brick especially if they contain an accumulation of dust or compost. Plants grown in the house will need an occasional water and a feed of a balanced liquid fertiliser a couple of times a year. The only other maintenance is to remove dead leaves to prevent any rotting of the rosette.
Sempervivum are really suitable for this type of display as they can be left outside all year, but for a display indoors I have also used small leaved foliage Begonia’s and non-hardy succulents such as Echeveria.
