It is landscaping in miniature, the urban dwellers momentary escape. Not to mention, requires far less hard labor than outdoor gardening. Like my dreams of a Fall line of Newborn Knit Hats, I also envisioned fantastical glass enclosed worlds of moss, fimo-clay birds and toadstools, fern forests and strategically placed sculptural stones and wind-knotty branches.
I decided to start small. Started by looking in thrift stores for glass containers. I wanted chunky glass to evoke yesteryear cabinet-o-curiosities feelings. I bought some charcoal bits and gravel from the local (aquarium) fish store, and soil from Target. Mossy plants ("ground cover" plants), and a Venus flytrap. I wanted my venus flytrap to be surrounded by a velvety carpet of lush moss.
Even though these are mini landscapes, there needs to be space to work with, like shoebox sized space. Need to be able to get hands/fingertips in there. So I settled for planting moss. (1) Thin layer of charcoal - this is supposed to soak up bad stuff. (2) Soil layer, with big divot into which to shove plant roots. Plant roots take up way more space that one would expect. The soil layer wound up being quite deep - another reason why a bigger container is better - so the soil doesn't hog up most of the space. Oh yes, there's a worm in there - couldn't be bothered to pick it out. I put (3) gravel over the soil and around the plant when I noticed aesthetically, there was too much soil.
Problem 1: once I dump gravel on soil there's no separating them. I tried scooping out some soil, resulting in an indistinct border between gravel and soil, as you can see. Aesthetically yuck. Problem 2: moss plant was mangled, I'd knocked off flowers, and it was covered in soil bits. I used q-tips to clean and untangle. Hopefully Mossy Plant will live, and if it outgrows this container, well I'll deal with that then!
1 comment:
It's not as bad as you think! i quite like it!
If you want to cover the soil part you can cut a slice of plastic from those 2/1.00$ plastic cutting boards from the dollar store. Press it against the glass with a chopstick while pushing down to slide it between the soil and the glass. the with a spoon direct decorative rocks against the glass. Push the soil down behind the plastic as you ease out the plastic...does that make any sense?
Anyway- I hope you keep on having fun in terrarium land and if you need a few polymer clay terrarium inhabitants check my site out:
www.thyrza.ca
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