I have some henchicks that have inspired me to start an indoor dish garden using other cacti or succulents what kind of soil/sand/gravel base combination should I start with?. I will be using a wide, shallow dish, like a flat bottomed ceramic dishhopefully at least 12-16 inches in diameter.and maybe only 2 or 3 inches deep.
Buy some cactus soil and just top the soil with gravel, it keeps the sandy cactus soil from rising up when you water it and allows the water to sink in better. Be careful with your plant selection and be sure they all grow at a similar speed otherwise the faster growing plants will take over the pot and kill the very slow growing ones.
The key to dealing with cacti is they don't like their feet wet. So you need a very sandy/vermiculite soil with a little organic matter, but the key is that it be well-drained. You can't have a closed-bottomed pot, it has to drain out through a hole into some other container. Remember how cacti grow, what kind of environment they are evolved for: every week you pour a glass of water over them, it wets the sandy soil and then drains off. Cacti rot if the dirt is too moist. Water them and then let the soil dry out before watering again. Any nursery will have a bag of cacti soil mix. Anything will do since they are evolved to grow on almost nothing. Keep them in a sunny window and do not allow the soil to remain wet.
2 parts sand to 1 part compost is fine.much cheaper than buying fancy cactus soil blends. Make sure you have drain holes at the bottom, though.and definitely separate cactus from succulents. Some succulents need way more water than most cactus do, so read up on what you plan on putting together.
