I’m so excited to share this guest post with you all! This kid-friendly garden craft is from master horticulturist and author, Katie Elzer Peters. Her new book, Miniature Gardens, is a complete guide to miniature gardens with a hefty dose of good gardening practices. Her mission: to bring basics of gardening back to the trend by building mini gardens that mix creativity with longevity. A DIY Terrarium project is featured below and you can enter to win a copy of her book at the end of this post!

A terrarium filled with tropical plants is the perfect jungle setting in which to keep a dinosaur or two. While you can’t time travel back to the age of the dinosaurs, you can bring a little bit of the Jurassic era to your desk or dining room table. Moisture-loving houseplants grow best in this fully enclosed terrarium.

What you need:

Preserved reindeer moss

Polished stones

Ceramic animal figurines

Handmade ceramic sculptures

Plastic or resin mushrooms

Plastic decorative swirl picks

A container that looks large when not filled with plants and soil suddenly has little room for accessories when planted. Look for accessories, including animal figurines that are less than 2 inches long for larger terrariums and ½ to 1 inch long for smaller terrariums. This container is a clear candy jar from the craft store. It is 8 inches tall and 7 inches in diameter.

Ideal terrarium plants like high humidity and low light. Table ferns, polka dot plants, Selaginella, Croton, Alternanthera, and Ficus plants all fare well in terrariums. Because terrariums are so small, look for plants in 1-inch pots or plants in larger pots that can be split into smaller pieces.

Use a sterilized seedling mix or potting soil in a terrarium to prevent fungal problems. A small bag from the houseplant section of the garden center is enough for this project. It uses a few cups of soil, at most.

Where the dinosaurs Roam Terrarium Step by Step Directions

1. Fill the bottom of the container with ½ to 1 inch of rocks.

2. Pour activated charcoal on top of the rocks until the rocks are barely covered by the charcoal.

3. Add the potting mix on top of the charcoal. Start with 1 inch of potting mix. This doesn’t seem like much, but it is easier to start with a little, than it is to add more potting mix and dig holes.

4. Place the plants. If you’re using accessories, such as the dinosaur, you can set them in among the plants to gauge the effect see if you want to move the plants around prior to planting.

5. Remove plants from pots and plant them. The bottom of the plant rootballs can be touching the rocks. Use a spoon to fill in with soil around the plants.

View the Garden from All Sides

Even in such a small terrarium, you can make separate little scenes. Ideally, you’ll use accessories to make the terrarium interesting and inviting from all sides.

8. Water the terrarium. This is the trickiest step. It’s easy to overwater and then difficult to get the terrarium to dry out. Start by watering so that the top inch of soil (which might, in this case, be all of the soil) is about as damp as a wrung-out sponge. You can always add water.

9. Place the cover on the terrarium, set it in bright indirect light, and enjoy.

Care and Maintenance Enclosed terrariums have to get some light so that the plants can photosynthesize, grow, and keep the water cycle going. Otherwise the plants will rot. You’ll know if the terrarium is getting enough light when you can see some water droplets (condensation) on the inside of the glass. If the plants start to rot or become mushy, the terrarium is too wet. Open the cover and let it dry out for a week or so. It could take a while to find the right balance of water for the system to reach equilibrium. I have one terrarium that I haven’t watered for two years. It can be done.

GIVEAWAY:

One reader will win Katie’s book, Miniature Gardens

HOW TO ENTER:

Leave a comment telling me what kind of terrarium you’d make

FOR AN EXTRA ENTRY:

Share this giveaway on a social network

Giveaway ends February 10, 2014 at 11:59pm CST. Must be 18 or older and a US resident to enter.

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