Making Terrariums

I’ve been wanting to make a terrarium forever so this weekend we visited our local greenhouse and picked up some supplies. Here are the plants we chose. Obviously, the pansies were not for the terrarium. A couple plants ended up being too large for our containers but used them in the tabletop greenhouse {see below}. Sorry, I don’t know the names of all of these plants. Here are some ideas for making terrariums.

Making Terrariums

Brett made his for a 4H fair entry. His terrarium must be covered for fair display so he used this great old jar I found at Goodwill for $1.99.

Layers of a Terrarium

1st layer: sand
2nd: pebbles
3rd: circle of garden weed guard fabric
4th: sheet moss
5th: soil
6th: plants
7th: sheet moss

I read that charcoal is required if your container is covered. We skipped the charcoal because I forgot to buy it and we don’t need to cover our jars except Brett’s, while it’s on display at the fair.

We had plenty of plants, actually too many, for our two jars. We carefully split them into multiple plants and shared them between the jars.

I love this fern/moss!

My terrarium in progress.Mine completed – we added small clear marbles for decoration. Brett’s has a tiny watering can and mine has a miniature glass cloche.

Brett’s completed terrarium. He is going to use it for a 4H fair entry.

There were many little plants left over that we couldn’t fit in the terrariums so we decided to put them in our little greenhouse. I found it a few years ago at Goodwill for $3.99! I haven’t used it much and it’s been sitting in the garage – such a shame but we don’t have much room to display it.

While at Goodwill on Saturday, I found the tray {1st picture below} and was planning to use it for magnetic activities for day care. We talked about the plants draining and water possibly leaking from the bottom of the greenhouse, and then I remembered this tray. It didn’t fit underneath the greenhouse, but it fit inside perfectly! I was so excited about that! We repotted our little plants and put them inside with moss around them to cover the tray. I put it on our living room table.