Easy DIY Terrarium – A Step-by-Step Guide

A big Hello to all my arty-crafty friends!!

I have been caught by the gardening bug and have been obsessing over succulents and terrariums for the past one month. I just couldn’t wait to get this project ready to share with you all!

This one is very close to me heart because of various reasons! I loved botany back in school and this project actually took me back in time where I remember learning about Mr. David Latimer’s jar experiment on making a self sufficient ecosystem in a glass jar. This happens to be the world’s first ever Terrarium which was planted in 1960. The terrarium was watered only once in 1972 and has been functioning by itself ever since!!

The idea of making a terrarium made me take up art or nature journalling too and I have started observing and appreciating nature and the small things that I see around! Here’s a page from my journal- on Terrariums. I used Little Birdie’s Watercolor Half pan set to make this Journal spread.

This project also let me mess around and play with soil. Come lets see how messy and fun the art of making Terrariums is!

To get started with making Terrariums, you will need the following:

And you can find all of these byalso visiting this link: TERRARIUM ESSENTIALS

Itsy Bitry also has a huge collection of beautiful Miniatures that you would want to explore: MINIATURES

METHOD:

I started off with layering the bottom of the glass container with pebbles. This could be about an inch thick. A wider glass container would need a wider base of these pebbles. These pebbles help in drainage in the Terrarium.

I then cut out a plastic sheet to the size of the width of the jar and pricked holes into it.

I placed this perforated plastic sheet in the jar. The plastic prevents the next layer of sand from completely settling down into the pebbles. The perforation helps maintain drainage in the Terrarium.

I then put in an inch of desert sand as the next layer. The sand again helps as a medium of drainage in the terrarium and also helps the succulents thrive as these are mainly dessert plants. One also needs to be cautious about using only desert sand or river sand for this particular layer as beach sand contains salt which may not help succulents survive in the Terrarium.

After this, a thin layer of activated carbon can be put in, to keep the Terrarium healthy. Activated carbon absorbs foul smells and odor.

The carbon was then followed by a layer of moss.

Finally a layer of potting mix helped me plant succulents into the Terrarium.

I added a couple of succulents into the Terrarium.

And finally decorated it with some miniature elements.

Here’s the layered outcome of the Terrarium.

And the final outcome of my little green space:

How did you like my little green project. Would you be making a Terrarium for yourself? Please let me know in the comments section below.