You are probably thinking “yeah we get it already” because you might think I mean growth on a personal level. Well, yes, but this time I mean on a physical plant level. Lets get our hands dirty and bring some life into the house.
At work, I will be moving into a clean new office and will have a nice desk that I can make my own. Work can be tough some days but having a spot for yourself and making it feel like you can be really fun not to mention making it a bit more tolerable. The new office will still have the normal fluorescent lighting but it will also have a window. So what better way to customize my desk and decorate a new space then to make a terrarium.
Terrariums are great to have for a few different reasons. Of course they are pretty mini gardens but they also are easy to maintain, require little watering and can grown in all kinds of lighting. Plants are also good for purifying air. Sometimes my office will smell like paint or thinners do to the nature of my job. Just an added benefit that these tiny plants will help take some of that out of the air. I’ve included a link for the benefits plants and terrariums offer below.
You dont really need much skill or talent to put one together. In fact, I chose to create mine this week with the help of my nephew. He likes project time with Auntie. I stopped into the dollar store to find a small glass bowl for his and some of the little add ins for our project. Then I went to Lowes to get the succulents for our terrariums. I am sure there are many different types of succulents or small plants that can be used. I pulled out a few that caught my eye. I will say this project wasn’t inexpensive after I got about 16 to fill our 3 containers. But I digress.
Of course I didn’t go into this just thinking I needed plants. There are a couple things that you need to grab if you are going to create your own mini garden. The basics are a glass jar or container, river rocks, activated charcoal, water, succulents or other small plants of your choosing and any fun pieces for flare. You will see what I mean by flare. Lol. The charcoal will help hinder the growth of bad bacteria or mold since it is a humid climate in the jar.
Start with layering your river rocks or pebbles. We added some blue and green glass pebbles just for fun. You can leave a hole in the center to fill next with the activated charcoal. You want about an inch for good growth of the roots. I added an additional layer of indoor soil to mine on top of the charcoal but you dont have to. next you take the plants that you chose and add them in. When you remove the plant from its original sprouted container you do want to shake out or break up a bit of the dirt and roots to allow the root to breathe and get used to the new soil.
There are so many ways to make it your own. You can do different layers of colored pebbles, add in moss or even add in little fairy creatures. Asher loves dinosaurs so of course we added one or eight to our jars. I let him put them in his terrariums but Auntie had to at least have one. Here is our completed project.
Whatever you choose to add for a little spice is up to you but go get creative. Maybe just a new green mini garden will help spruce up your room too. And its kind of fun knowing that you take care of a little living thing. Much easier than pets or kids I promise LOL. Show me what you’ve got!
The Distracted Damsel 