 reate a magical, miniature forest with these easy-to-follow instructions.
- Find a clear container - a canning jar, a pickle jar or a fish bowl. The container can either have a lid or be open. (See #10 below for how that affects your terrarium's care and feeding.)
- Lay a one-inch layer of pebbles on the bottom.
- Add about 1/4-inch of charcoal, to help with drainage.
- Add about three inches of potting soil.
- Either buy or collect small plants that thrive in humid environments, such as ferns, mosses, African violets, baby's tears, cyclamen, begonia, carnivorous plants (like Venus fly traps), and other tropical plants. (A garden nursery salesperson can help with this.
- Using a long-handled teaspoon, a skewer or chopsticks, dig small holes in the potting soil and carefully place your plants in the holes. Remember to leave enough room for the plants to grow, as well as enough room for air to circulate around the plants.
- Add more visual intrigue by placing small rocks, toys, dolls or dinosaurs among the plants.
- Mist the terrarium thoroughly.
- To care for your terrarium, place it in indirect sunlight (too much sun makes terrariums get too hot).
- If the top will be sealed, mist the plants just once. After that, the moisture in the soil will constantly cycle up into the plants. The leaves will then release the moisture, which will condense on the sides of the container and trickle back down to the soil. The terrarium should only need watering every couple of months. If too much condensation develops, leave the top off for a few days so the moisture can evaporate.
If you don't seal the top, you'll need to water the plants every couple of weeks and mist them a bit in between, just to keep the soil moist.
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