Specialty Gardening: My very first terrarium!, 1 by plantladylin

plantladylin wrote:
Here's a good article written by one of our very own DG'ers with some great information: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/619/

I myself have been planting terrariums for many years ... love them for the easy upkeep (practically none!) The plants you use just depends on the size of the container. If you use a small container you should use miniature or semi miniature plants that do not get too large or you will be having to trade them out as they grow. I have a ten gallon aquarium that I planted as a terrarium and have had to remove some plants that have gotten real large and taken over.

Great project to do with children. You could do one good sized one as a group or if you want them to each have their own little terrarium you can purchase plastic containers with lids from Wal-Mart and each do their own. In the housewares isle at Wal-Mart where they sell kitchen gadgets and such, there's an area that sells rubbermaid type plastic jars in different sizes with screw on lids ... very inexpensive from like $1.69 or so to about $4.98. There also is a section where dishes and all are that sells the heavy glass cannister/cookie jar type containers .... I believe there are three different sizes, the largest being @ $14.98. I have a couple of those planted also. I just put pea gravel (rinsed well first) in the jar first and then lightly moistened potting soil and plant it up and put the lid on. Some folks like to put a piece of screen or something between the pebbles and soil, to keep the soil from getting down into the pebbles ... I never seem to remember that step.

Here are a couple of my jar terrariums that I planted about 1 1/2 years ago and have not had to water in many months ... they seem to get enough moisture with the lids on.