Terror-rarium

They are taking over the house.
I saw them invading the booths at the Flower Show; I mean, they were EVERYWHERE. It really was epidemic. I went to a local garden store and in speaking with the friendly cashier, learned that others had began to notice them as well. And so, like so many other people, I decided I had to do something about it.

And so I made my first Terrarium,

and my second, and my third and my fourth....
And pretty soon, poor hubby won't have a surface to sit on.
Like I said, it's epidemic. You should succumb now. It's going to hit you sooner or later. And here's how to do it.

Any glass vase or bulbous jar should do. I've even seen them put in light bulbs.
I used a super tall vase leftover from my wedding.

First, I put in a layer of stones, about 1 inch thick. You can use any kind of decorative stone, just make sure they are clean. You don't want to put bacteria in your little terrarium.

But because sooner or later, accident can happen and disease can strike, the terrarium will need a layer of charcoal over the stones. I put down a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch. Charcoal sucks the poisons out of the soil. Betcha didn't know that part of a Navy Seal's training is making and eating charcoal, just in case they ingest poison.

Next, you want to add a nice layer of potting soil. Your plants will be living in this forever, so be nice to them.

Fill your vase carefully with each of the layers. You don't want rocks cracking the glass as you drop them down and once the plants go in, it will be very hard to change the depth of any of those layers.

Get your selection of plants ready and pull them out of the pots. You can loosen the roots a bit, but be careful not to tear them up too much. You do want plants that are complimentary. If you put a cactus in with a tropical plant, they are going to have vastly different needs. I like succulents. They are easy-peesy as pie.

Tuck them into the soil, putting a little more over the top if you need to. But remember, chances are, you will not have a lot of wiggle room, so pre-determining the placement of your plants will help a lot.

Then, water them. But not like you're baptizing them in the river Jordan. A few spritzes will do nicely.

I tucked bright green moss around my plants for a fun pop of color. You can also put in fun little decorations and nick-knacks. I've seen people make dinosaur scenes.


But I'm pretty boring.

I did, however, take out the monogram letters that were on the top of my wedding cake and tuck them inside the vases for some fun visual appeal. I love the way they turned out. I did give my Hubby's monogrammed letter the simple, practical vase and gave mine the psychotically green moss and crazy, alien-ish plants. I wonder if he'll draw the connection. Poor hubby. He had no idea his simple succulents would get stuck on the same shelf as my psychotic ones. Still, I do think they look good together.

Have you ever tried to make a terrarium? Are you gonna try it? Got any fun ideas? SHARE!!!