071609_terrarium2.jpgWe're pretty into plants around here and have a lot of experience with succulents and container gardens. Beautiful terrariums keep popping up online and out in the world and we've been lusting after them, wanting to make one but for some reason found the whole idea of building a terrarium a little daunting. It seemed like you needed all sorts of fancy stuff and...magic? But last week we finally took the plunge and started small, creating a sweet little terrarium out of a jar we found at the salvation army:

071609_terrarium.jpg

Gather Your Supplies:
- a jar or other container that is mostly contained
-some rocks
-charcoal (this is the fanciest ingredient)
-some dirt
-some plants
-options: some moss

Assemble:
This is the easy part. Once you have your supplies, lay some rocks in the bottom of your container. These are for drainage. Then sprinkle in some charcoal. This helps absorb the decaying matter that will be created within the terrarium. We got ours at the nursery, so you don't need to make any special trips for it. Then sprinkle in some soil and start planting. We chose succulents for our little guy and relied on using cuttings from plants we already had around. We decided to add some decorative moss to make it feel more terrarium-y (and we found it at OSH, so you don't have to go out of your way to find it).

We watered it and sealed it up. It's been about 10 days and we haven't needed to add any more water, though we did undo the latch because the condensation was starting to get out of control. The jar is sitting on a desk with medium light and seems to be doing well. Next we plan to try some larger scale terrariums!

What had your experience been with enclosed terrariums?