Hi, my name is Casey Patty of Small World Terrariums and today I’m going to be teaching you how to make your very own terrariums step by step.
And were going to start with layering the soil, putting in the fabric, putting in the charcoal and then selecting the plants. Arranging the plants, putting in final finishing touches such as stones and drift wood and then the last step I’m going to do is teach you how to care for your terrariums once you have one. So there are a number of ingredients needed to make a terrarium. It can be a little bit of a process but once you have everything on the table in front of your things go pretty quickly. So when you’re just starting out it’s a little bit of a scavenger hunt to go around town and find everything here but I’m going to leave you with a list of exactly what you need.
Of course, you’re going to need a piece of glass, anything that holds moisture. Start with soil of course, gardening charcoal. I use just aquarium gravel from a pet shop to put into the bottom for drainage. I mix the soil, the water and the charcoal in a bowl like this. I’ll show you later how to do that. Horticultural fabric, which you can buy it, looks like this and if you can’t find horticultural fabric, you can also use an old screen. Newspaper to cover the surface you’re working on. A decorative stones, I love using driftwood it’s just another element. Actually, a serrated knife but you don’t have to have but I will show you later that there are some plants that are easier to break up with a knife than with your hands.
Water of course, I will show you what this chopstick is used for, a rag or a small torn off piece of paper towel works just fine and a non-toxic glass cleaner. And plants, but not any plants. All of this plants here require the same level of light, the same amount of water, so you just have to make sure that they all can play friendly together and if you’re not sure. You can just ask somebody in the gardening shop or read the labels very carefully. All of this happens in meeting moisture-loving plants.
I have been doing this for about a year and a half now and when I first started, I was just curious and to be honest with you I actually did kill a lot of plants in the process. There wasn’t a lot of information out there on the internet. There is a little bit but nothing with is as much detail that I’m going to give you today, so I’m just going to teach you everything I’ve learned through trial and error so you won’t have to go through the growing pains that I did. Now sometimes it can take a little bit of time in the beginning to get comfortable with plants and which ones again can live friendly together. But aside from that with everything you have here and with all the instruction I’m about to give you, you will know exactly what to do every step of the way. So with that, let’s get started.
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