Living landscape planter

Any valley, mountain or island as a desk planter you really grow plants in. Planting pockets sit down in the real valleys, each with a drain hole into a drip tray, and the lake can become a little pond or a pebble bed.

Pick a place

Drag and zoom the map to frame your landscape inside the outline.

Shape and size

Shape

Size (longest side)

Landscape height

Wall thickness

The outer walls, the pocket walls and the roof of the hollow are never thinner than this. 2.4 mm is right for most printers; go thicker for a watertight pond.

Planting pockets

What to grow

Mixed: moss down in the damp valleys, succulents a little higher, air plants on the high ground.

Each pocket is deep enough for its plant: moss 10–14 mm, succulents 20–28 mm, air plants 8–12 mm. The walls slope at 60°, so they print without supports, and a pocket is never closer than a wall's thickness to the edge, the water or another pocket.

Water

The lake or sea

Painted: a blue layer on top. A pond: a basin that holds real water. Pebbles: a basin with drain holes to fill with small pebbles.

A drip tray for it to stand in Self-watering: wick channels down to the tray Hollow underneath (lighter, and a chamber for the water)

Every pocket drains through a hole in its floor. With self-watering, a cotton cord through each channel carries water up from the tray to the roots.

Colours

In the 3MF every colour is its own named part, for a multi-colour printer. On a one-nozzle printer, print it in one colour.

Download

Care card

One page to keep with the planter or give with it: a map of the pockets, what to plant in each, how to water them, and print and safety tips.

Free for personal use, and for selling up to $5,000 a year with a TerraPrinter credit. Bigger sellers need a commercial license. Keep the data credits. License

How the planter works

Pockets in the valleys

The landscape comes from real elevation data. The planting pockets are put where the ground is lowest compared with the ground round it, down in the valleys and hollows, where water would gather in real life. Click the preview to add a pocket anywhere, or to take one away.

Made to print

Every pocket is a cup with walls sloping at 60°, and the hollow underneath has a roof that rises at 45° from its walls, so nothing needs supports. The outer walls, the pocket walls and the roof keep at least the wall thickness you choose, never under 2 mm.

Drainage and the tray

Each pocket drains through a hole in its floor into the hollow and the drip tray, so the roots never stand in water. The planter stands on ribs in the tray, so the water can run underneath. Empty the tray after watering.

Self-watering

Turn on the wick channels and a wider hole runs from each pocket down to the tray. Thread a cotton cord through it: the cord soaks up water from the tray and carries it to the soil, so moss and succulents can go longer between waterings.

Lakes, ponds and pebbles

The lakes and sea come from OpenStreetMap. Paint them blue, make them a basin that holds real water, or fill them with small pebbles. For an island, the planter can follow the island's own coastline.

What to grow

Small plants that stay small: cushion moss in the damp valleys, little succulents such as echeveria or haworthia, or an air plant that needs no soil at all. The care card lists what suits each pocket and how often to water it.

Elevation: Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (© DLR e.V. & Airbus) and Mapzen Terrain Tiles on AWS (SRTM, GMTED2010, ETOPO1 and others). Lakes, rivers and coastlines © OpenStreetMap contributors. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO. More for your home: wall maps, coasters and tiles, lithophane lamps, open the TerraPrinter app or see more 3D map gift ideas.