I’ve got a little tutorial here on the blog for you today! I don’t usually have time for such craftiness but every once in a while I find a new obsession and research it to death. I have been on Pinterest more frequently as of late because I just moved into a house and have the urge to nest but have very little cash flow so I needed some DIY inspiration! My house is still bare, but I am slowly collecting ideas to change that.
When I first got here about a month ago, I bought a couple of succulents to decorate my kitchen table. I treat them like my babies. They are so easy to maintain! (Which is a sad indication of the type of parent I will one day be) I just love how tiny and earthy they are. They just make the perfect little house plants.
A few weeks ago I bought some glass jars with lids at thrift store and ever since, I have been really wanting to make a couple of terrariums! I have been putting it off because I have been completely bombarded with editing photo shoots, however, I realized yesterday that I was going to go insane if I didn’t get off of my computer for a little while! So I went to Lowes and bought a cart full of succulents and got down to business!
I just know once you guys see how cute my terrariums turned out, you are going to want to make yourself one too so I want to share with you how I did mine and hopefully you’ll learn something!
The first thing I had to figure out was if I wanted to actually close the lids of my glass jars and have a closed environment terrarium (which is a real terrarium, by definition) or if I just wanted to use the jar and have an open environment. I decided to do one of each but in order to keep the plants in the closed one alive, I had to buy some self activating carbon. I wasn’t really sure what that meant but with some help from google, I found what I needed at a fish store down the street from me!
The things you need to make a terrarium are pretty simple:
1. container
2. rocks or some sort of drainage
3. potting soil good for the plants you choose
4. self activating carbon (if you choose a closed container)
5. plants
I just layered the rocks on the bottom of the jars and then mixed in the carbon.
Then I had to decide which plants were going to work better in the closed environment since most of these plants are accustomed to dry weather and the closed terrarium is a little more moist and I wasn’t sure they would adapt. I read up on them here to learn more about what succulents like and don’t like. Once I picked my plants and separated them into groups, I added some soil and gently placed the plants where I wanted them and packed the dirt around them pretty tightly.
Of course, in my case, it doesn’t matter how EASY a project is, I always make a mess…but God made dirt, and dirt don’t hurt.
I added some broken seashells on the top of mine but you can add whatever you want!
I love that you can use anything as a container for succulents….I can’t wait to thrifting again and hunt for some fun containers. This time I used a mason jar that had a brownie in it from a wedding a couple of weeks ago. I took it home as a keepsake and now I am reusing it for a cute little succulent!
Since I was on the project train, I clipped a couple of pieces from each of the plants and placed them in a separate container to try my hand a propagation. I heard that this mostly just takes patience so here goes nothing! I’ll keep you updated on how they do!
That’s all I’ve got for you today. Tell me what diy projects you’ve been working on lately!
