To of my favorite things in the world are spreading my love of plants and getting rid of of things I don’t use. In an effort to combine both of those loves, I recruited my sister Dawn and we decided to give a few friends terrariums as Christmas gifts this year. After doing a lot of research, we found some very reasonably priced plants on RecycledEden.com, and gathered several glass containers I had lying around my apartment just begging to be gotten rid of before I pack up and move in a few months. We made a point of rounding up all of the materials we’d need well in advance, because the plants need a little while to adjust to their containers and fill out so they don’t look like piddly ass gifts. I also had some clear glass ball Christmas ornaments that I decided to attempt to grow some found moss in as a kind of experiment.
The larger of the two fishbowl terrariums we made.
The apothecary jar terrarium I made for myself. The blur you see is Maxine.
To make your own terrarium, you’ll need:
- most importantly, plants; you can use found moss or something you’ve dug up, but beware because they could quickly outgrow their container. We made the mistake of thinking we could just pop into Lowes and pick up some tiny plants, but ended up finding a way better selection online. We ended up buying a couple peperomia disc vines, spike moss, peacock spike moss, and some sort of variegated begonia.
- rocks or pebbles (we used aquarium gravel, though if we’d had a little more time and been more creative we could have gone and picked up river rocks or something)
- potting soil, or something like it (I used some of the dirt I harvested from my worm bin recently)
- activated charcoal (also called activated carbon), if making a closed terrarium, which is probably found in the aquarium section of wherever you happen to be shopping (we didn’t know this fact and consequently had a hard time finding this)
- spaghnum moss
- some sort of container; I find that apothecary jars and fishbowls look especially attractive, and if you’re up for the headache the clear glass balls are nice too
If you know what you're looking for, none of it is very hard to find.
Dawn carefully funneling the rocks and charcoal into one of the ball terrariums. Her funneling skills put me to shame.
We followed the Terrarium Man‘s directions, which instructed us to first line the bottom of the chosen container with rocks. Depending on the size of the container, none of our rock layers were more than a couple of inches for the deepest one (the apothecary jar, in which I used to store pasta, that I made for myself). Next, a layer of activated charcoal is necessary to keep the air fresh in closed terrariums. The next layer should be just enough spaghnum moss to keep the dirt from sifting down through the rocks when you water the terrarium. Finally, add the dirt. We made the soil layers in all our terrariums the thickest, according to Terrarium Man’s diagram. At this point, you want to add your plants. We divided most of the plants we got from Recycled Eden, but I checked with them first to make sure the plants could take it. A few of them are looking weak already, though, so I’m going to keep a close eye on them. Once the plants are in place (make sure no leaves are touching the sides of the glass, and that the plants have plenty of room to spread out and grow when they feel like it), water the terrarium thoroughly and put the lid on (if there is one). They should be placed in indirect sunlight (direct sunlight will cook them, since they are all in relatively enclosed places), and pretty much left alone. The open containers will need more frequent watering than the closed ones, but regardless they are pretty low-maintenance (from what I read). As I watch these little guys grow over the next month, I’ll keep you guys updated on any problems I see in our method. Soon I’ll be making gift tags with fairly detailed care instructions specific to plant and container type. I’ll keep you guys posted on those, because I have a feeling they’re going to be pretty cute. I’ll have to be careful not to photograph the name side, though. Some of my friends are pretty sneaky!
We planted a little ivy-looking plant in this old vase. It should have yellow blooms once it gets established.
I was proudest of and most frustrated by these because it's pretty difficult keep the layers intact. Also, Maxine has already broken one of them.