How to Design a Succulent Garden for My Desk

Select an attractive bowl or dish that is at least 2 inches deep but not more than 4 or 5 inches deep. The container may be as wide as you like, but keep in mind how much work space it's going to take up before you make a final decision. There does not have to be a drainage hole in the container, but if you find one you love that does have a hole, make sure you also get a platter to put underneath it.

Choose several small succulent plants in 2-inch nursery pots from an indoor plant shop or garden center. Two or three plants are enough if your container is about the width of a soup bowl. If the container is the size of a pie plate or a little larger, then four to five small plants will fit nicely.

Pick out plants that have a variety of leaf sizes, shapes, textures and color tones. For example, match a dark-green columnar cactus with a plump, blue-toned hen-and-chicks (Echeveria) plant and a lime-green sedum plant.

Gather a few handfuls of pretty pebbles from your home garden to scatter across the surface of your desktop succulent container garden. A bag of small polished stones or aquarium gravel in shades that complement your planting container are a lovely alternative.

Set your container -- filled with soil and ready to plant -- on a flat surface, positioned about the same distance and angle from you as it will be sitting on your desk. Place the succulents, still in their pots, on the container and around its edges, visualizing how the arrangement will look as you glance over at it from your office desk.

Adjust the plants until you find a pleasing configuration. Taller, wider plants generally are more suited to the area of the container furthest away from your desk chair position, with shorter succulents to the middle and one side. Trailing plants may be interspersed among the other succulents or set to one side where they'll drape over the container's edge.

Plant the succulents in the container soil, starting with the one farthest away from your desk position. Rearrange the plants' spacing, if necessary, to maintain your design plan as you fit the succulents into the garden container.

Sprinkle the decorative pebbles or stones you selected over the soil surface after you have watered the planted garden thoroughly.