SOCIAL MEDIA

8.02.2013

The Greatest Terrarium You've Ever Seen

Well, here it is! I have been so excited to share this with you all. Okay, so maybe it is a little bold to say that it is the greatest terrarium you've ever seen like I said in the title of this post, but I am so proud of it and personally think it is pretty awesome! And, like I said, I have been excitedly waiting and waiting and waiting until I was finished with it to share it with you.
At my aunt and uncle's house here in Houston, they had this cool glass hutch of sorts (which I am now told was made to house plants) that was just sitting on the deck collecting dust. One day, I was like "Hey this would make a great terrarium!" and my Aunt Jenny was all for it. So here we are.

We went to Lowe's to look for the perfect plants for our terrarium and they were all on clearance! We got some plants for only 75 cents, which is wonderful. So this was a pretty inexpensive project!
We decided to get large stones, sand, pebbles, and moss to add some variety and different textures.
Arranging the plants in the case while they were still in their pots made the planning a lot easier for something this large with many plants. When we were ready to start planting them, we removed them and arranged them in a grid on the deck that followed the layout of the case.
I wasn't so sure how the planting would go since some of the plants required more soil around them than others, but we decided to just start with one level layer of soil. From there, we took each plant out of their pots as we went and built up the soil around them. We would do one section at a time, adding moss, pebbles, rocks, or sand when we were done with each section.
It took a while, but we finally finished! What I really liked about this project is that it is wasn't very difficult and is a beautiful addition to their back yard. Also, it was really forgiving, which was great for someone like me who doesn't really have much experience with plants. You couldn't really screw it up! And you don't notice the little parts that maybe aren't perfect because it is wonderful as a whole.

I am sad that I don't get to take this back to CA with me, but now that I know how to do it, I will definitely be looking for something to make a large terrarium like this one out of once I get home! We have some left over plants (we went a little crazy with the clearance rack!, so I think we are going to make some small ones out of vases and such to display around the house, and I might be able to take one of those home on the plane with me. We will see though since I will probably have my hand more than full between my stuff and Marly! But I will definitely be making little terrariums for my house once I get home :)

I hope you enjoyed a peek at this project and that it inspires you to make something like this for yourself! You may even find some plants on sale :)

Have a wonderful weekend! I'll be spending it exploring Austin!



Unknown said...

It's so wonderful! We love it. That plant stand has been sitting around collecting dust since 2007. It's such a lovely addition to our back deck. We will take good care of it.

Love, Aunty Jen

Erika from America said...

WHOA! That is AWESOME! It looks soooooo fantastic and I want one now! I may need to stop at Lowe's to get some plants, too!!! (I've been craving some greenery in my place!)

--Erika
http://www.chimerikal.com

Michaela said...

What a beautiful piece and great idea! Now I want to add something like this to my own home!

Michaela said...

What a beautiful piece and great idea! Now I want to add something like this to my own home!

Unknown said...

that is gorgeous!! I want one...I'm going to go hunting for one next week but one that can go indoors since fall is coming soon! Great job!

Derp said...

Nice! Is it still alive and kicking?