Chapter 1
Terrariums: A Low-Maintenance Friend
Terrariums are open or sealed glass containers used to create all-natural mini landscapes or ecosystems. Using just a few items from your local park- dirt, plants, rocks, twigs- and craft store, you've got a close to no maintenance mini flower gardens. Terrariums are great home decorations, gifts, or companions!
Terrariums are very cute and trendy, but they're also a simple science experiment. Using different layers as drainage, knowing how the cycle of precipitation can help water your sealed terrarium- all of this takes some studying. Most plants that are put in terrariums thrive in humidity, which is why succulents and cacti are so famous for being in terrariums. Even open terrariums have good humidity since it is an almost-confined space. Understanding how certain plants grow is also important because, if you were to have a slow growing plant and a fast growing plant in the same terrarium, the faster growing plant could take the slower growing plants nutrients and grow over it.
In a terrarium, there are many layers. In total, there are only about three or four layers- but they are very important. The first layer, which is the bottom layer, is about an inch of rocks. This is used as a retaining pool for water that is left over. Layer number two, an optional layer, is a mesh netting, so no debris contaminates the rocks of the first layer. Window screen or pinpoint net works well, or even things like cheesecloth work just as well. On top of the rocks or the netting, goes soil- plain garden soil, or succulent/cacti soil depending on what you're keeping in your terrarium. This is about an inch thick. But, of course, depending on what glass you're using, the height of your layers may differ.
At this point, there is only one more very thin layer left before planting. This minuscule layer is called substrate. Substrate is the surface or medium on which a plant grows or is attached to. The substrate layer is the most important layer because it is what the plants attach themselves to. They wrap their roots in substrate and grow into the soil below. And lastly, The plants! All you have to do is slightly push the roots of your plants or moss into the substrate. Now, you can add rocks or twigs or even bugs into your terrarium to make it even more beautiful.
Even though making a terrarium seems like a hard task, in total it only takes about 20 minutes to create one of these beautiful bits of nature. With terrariums, especially, you don’t have to worry about killing it. If you forget to water it for a week, no worries! Close terrariums keep humidity and using a precipitation process to keep watering itself. Of course, a little fresh water every now and then never hurt anyone.
