I wish to learn to make a bonsai tree. I am searching for the tutorials online and found one that is simple and easy home.base.be/graulusjl/bonsai%20help.html . Hope that I can learn well from this tutorial. I was thinking, why can't we make a bonsai on a garden bed like this inthebackyard.ca/gardens/ . Is it really necessary that bonsai has to be prepared in the pot? Because I am having a garden bed in my home.

Welcome to Bonsai. First off let me address the garden bed question. You can grow your material in a garden bed but in order for it to be a bonsai it has to be in a small pot. The literal meaning of bonsai is "tree in tray". I would suggest learning from several different sources and gather as much info as you can. Bonsai Empire has a great beginners course with 3 hrs of information (if I remember correctly). Also research to see if there is a club in your area. Having older people to guide you is priceless. Oops, did I say older? I meant wiser.

Bonsai wrote:

First off let me address the garden bed question. You can grow your material in a garden bed but in order for it to be a bonsai it has to be in a small pot.

Sure, but you don't start training material in a bonsai pot. A garden bed would be a good idea.

Because I am having a garden bed in my home.

I hope however Annaliz did not mean that garden bed is IN her home...

Often, bonsai are grown intially in the full ground. This is the fastest way to get a reasonable sized trunk. After that, once the tree trunk is ready, most of the scars have healed and the main branches are in place, the tree is lifted from the ground, and placed in a training dish. Normally a shallow pot, much larger than a bonsai tray. Over time, as thetree gets mre refined, the tree is moved into smaller pots.

Now.. CAN you keep a bonsai in a gardenbed? Yes you could. It will not be easy to keep it refined. It might not qualify for the label bonsai (Although garden bonsai do exist). But they may still be nice to look at.

If you really wanted it in a garden bed -- Could you place the tree in it's "pot" just barely under the soil to give it the illusion of being in the garden bed? Or would that cause the soil to be too compact within the pot? I would think if you wanted the illusion of it being in the soil, you could always do a light coating of wood chips or something that wouldn't suffocate the pot but still give it sufficient cover to be hidden.

I'm new to this so I'm not sure how well it'd actually work. Just a thought !

Barksoul wrote:

I would think if you wanted the illusion of it being in the soil

Why exactly would you want to do that?

Auk wrote:

Barksoul wrote:

I would think if you wanted the illusion of it being in the soil

Why exactly would you want to do that?

I'm not sure, I'm assuming the OP wants to use a raised garden bed for aesthetic appeal. It was just an idea of how you might accomplish this while still keeping your tree contained.

Barksoul wrote:

I'm not sure, I'm assuming the OP wants to use a raised garden bed for aesthetic appeal. It was just an idea of how you might accomplish this while still keeping your tree contained.

I see, and now I'm not sure either. From what the OP wrote about preparing bonsai, I understood she wanted to put them in a raised garden bed to get better growth, before training it for a pot. Guess only the OP can answer that question.