Terrarium: Miniature Gardens For Your Indoors
If you have a green thumb, you would surely love to have a garden of your own, to grow the most beautiful plants and flowers. But you might feel constrained as not many apartments come with enough space to have individual gardens. How about setting up miniature gardens indoors? You could try terrariums, or miniature gardens in glass containers, small or big.
All you need for creating a terrarium are a transparent glass vase, a mix of greens (specifically succulents), soil, pebbles, porcelain toys or even plastic toys (these will help create a story and add colour). Instead of a glass vase, you could even use a waste coffee kettle, mason jar or incandescent yellow-light bulb.
MakaanIQ tells you how you can create a terrarium under your own do-it-yourself, or DIY, project:
Things you will need
- Glass container with enough opening to place the plants and let them breathe
- Cactus soil for the succulents
- Charcoal
- Pebbles, playing marbles or broken porcelain pieces
- Moss to increase water absorption in plants
- Landscaping accessories
- Kitchen tongs
(Wikipedia)
Steps
- Clean the glass container inside out and add the first layer of pebbles or marbles, whichever you have picked.
- The second layer to be added is of granules of charcoal, followed by a third layer of cactus soil.
- Dig a deep hole in the layers and place the plant, then bind it enough with soil to cover the roots. Remember, when you remove the plant from its original container, remove the solid soil ball around the roots. Add some moss around it to give it a beautiful look.
- After you are done planting, add the accessories you have kept to complete your own little terrarium story.
- Once done, wipe clean the outside and the remaining glass inside to get rid of the extra dirt that might have been accumulated on the outside of the container.
(Dreamstime)
Maintenance
- Terrarium plants need just a little splatter of water once or twice a week, as succulents don't need much water; moss helps absorb water and circulate it.
- Place the terrarium near a window where it gets indirect natural daylight. As it is placed in a container, direct sunlight will cause a greenhouse effect, damaging the plant.
- If the plant outgrows the container, trim it right.