The Terrarium Project

New Year, new terrarium!

That’s a saying, right?

Well, it’s my motto for the week! It’s the perfect project to ease myself into the New Year. Nothing too strenuous… the stress will come from keeping the plants alive in the months to come. I’m notorious for killing a cactus. My green thumb is completely non-existent and I have smothered cacti with love and water in the past.

Anyway, I digress. I had a terrarium that was just rocks and sand but my two year old smashed it. So I decided to up the ante and make a new one with real live plants in it! I bought 4 plants from Bunnings; a “Desert Rose” aka an Adenium Obesum, an Aloe Juvenna, a Mammillaria Marksiana and a weird alien-looking succulent with long tubes that was simply labelled “cactus”. I’ve since googled and I think the simple cactus is called a “Skinny Fingers” aka Crassula ovata. Someone correct me if I’m wrong because I actually have zero knowledge of flora.

I found the ginormous fishbowl at a huge store with cheap gifts/homewares.

I already had the beautiful red sand which I procured from the Australian desert about 8 years ago. The colour is amazing, it’s extremely fine and it has some desert debris in it, which makes my terrarium feel super authentic and rustic. Exactly what you want in a terrarium (I think…).

And now for a fun fact about me: I collect rocks. When I stroll along the beach or a river bank, I’m eyes to the ground and always on the lookout for an interesting rock. It’s gotten to the point where other people bring me rocks that they think I will like. I’m not ashamed to be a rock lover, and yeah, I already had the rocks.

The rest was pretty simple. The biggest problem I had to overcome was regarding soil to sand ratios; I was unsure whether to plant the cacti/succulents straight into sand or whether to keep them in some sort of receptacle with soil. Ultimately I decided to cut down the plastic pots that the plants came in so I could conceal them a little with the sand and rocks to make the landscape look a little more natural.

Once the sand was poured in I placed the plants around (removed them, put them back in, removed them, thought about life for a little, then put them back in) and fluffed the sand around for a bit until it looked right. Lastly I scattered the rocks around, using them to conceal the edges of the pot plants too.

And that was that! An easy terrarium to start the year off right!

Happy New Year! Happy Terrarium!

Kirby in Dreamland

Project Stats

Materials: Fishbowl = $23, Plants = $25

Extras: Nada

Time: 1 hour

Difficulty:  (1/5) (Not even difficult with an orange thumb)

Satisfaction / Pride Level:    (a mild 3/5)