Succulent Dish Gardens

I spent some time yesterday with some of the large dishes that I bought at the thrift store and a bag of cactus mix, putting together some dish gardens that will eventually live for the summer on top of the gabions. For now, they are riding out the cold temperatures living inside the  house. Two of them are in the upstairs bathroom, which has a skylight and is the brightest room in the house. The third is downstairs in front of a west-facing window, which I hope will provide enough light until the warmer weather arrives. I have a south-facing window that I can move it to, but right now there are tomato starts living there.

I've been busy pinning various dish gardens on Pinterest, figuring if my own artistic abilities fail me, I can imitate the layout of one of them. I actually put my first together based on a dish garden I pinned on Pinterest, here. It's not exactly the same plants, but they have the same shape and look.

My second was just free-style, me-style. I think I may have a tendency to overstuff. I'm hoping that little round succulent at the bottom with the orange-yellow flowers looks good with the orange-yellow of the dish.

The bright orange and yellow pottery dish all planted up. The bright colors of the dish aren't so obvious now, though.

My third was kind of a cross between imitation and creativity.

I still need to cover the soil with some pretty gravel. Hmm...I do need to fill up two more of these dishes for the garden, so when I go to buy the gravel, I'll just have to buy some more cute little succulents. Oh, bother!