Making Terrariums in Jars

[scrubjayspeaks]

ysabetwordsmith has been posting about making terrariums and did a step-by-step of creating one in a spice jar. I was very inspired by this, and I wanted to take advantage of it being moss season here. In the spirit of spreading the inspiration, here's my process post too.



I have an empty spice jar, complete with the snap-on shaker top and a lid that doesn't actually belong to it. This one had a plastic-y sticker for the label, which came off easily and left a minimum of adhesive residue. Most of the spice jars I have used papery labels, which are always such a pain to clean off.



Using a small transplanting trowel, I gathered up materials from around the place. I got some soil from gopher mounds and some worm castings, as well as some soil from under leaf layers around the cottonwood trees. I got some whole, decaying leaves as well. I found sticks and bark with lichens, also from the cottonwoods. Then from around the horse corrals, where the fencing allows condensation to collect more consistently than we get rain, I got some pads of moss, as well as a couple of small, low-growing plants.

I assembled it on the top of the trash can. Conveniently located, tall enough to spare my back, close enough to flat for a working surface.



For the gravel drainage layer, I used some of the assorted top dressing I've saved from repotting succulents. (Also, just for my own idle amusement, I tossed in a few pearls of the hail that's still hanging around in the shady areas after the freak hailstorm we had this week.) I topped that with leaves to isolate it. For the soil layer, I used a thicker, less rotted stick to pack it down.

The gravel layer seemed very thin when I was making it, but the final assembly seems to have a much thicker gravel-dirt base layer than I was aiming for. Possibly I wasn't looking at it from the side as much as I should have, as opposed to from the top. It's a little hard to judge when working in a small container like this, but we'll call that a learning lesson.



Then I arranged the fancy bits: Some patches of moss and one of the tiny plants, gently pressed into the base materials. Then some bits of lichen branch, snapped down to size.



At this point, I realized I had gathered plenty more materials than I needed. Since that was the most time-consuming part (wow, a whole five minutes, probably XD), it seemed a shame not to make more use of them. So I tracked down another jar. Again, I didn't want to mess around with the paper labels, so I opted for a larger jam jar instead. It ended up with a lot of adhesive, though, so I scrubbed it down with a little 99% IPA to lift that. No shaker top, but oh well.

Same process here. I found some larger leaves to match the wider diameter, but other than that, it was all the same batch of materials. This one got the other small plant. I used the pruning shears to cut bits of the thicker stick for this one.



A passing inspection by the neighbor's cat! Must be on important cat business, since he didn't stop for scritches.



Back in the kitchen, here's a better view of the inside. I used a damp cotton bud to swab dirt smudges off the inside walls just to tidy things up. The lids are on loosely while I get a sense of how fast moisture dissipates. I put one in my bedroom and one in the office. Indirect light of varying degrees, so we'll see if one spot proves more favorable.

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>This one had a plastic-y sticker for the label, which came off easily and left a minimum of adhesive residue. Most of the spice jars I have used papery labels, which are always such a pain to clean off.<<

Yeah, mine had a plastic sticker too. It left some residue, but I was able to scrub off the glue. After using a wet soapy dish sponge, I got the rest off with a dry sponge.

>>The gravel layer seemed very thin when I was making it, but the final assembly seems to have a much thicker gravel-dirt base layer than I was aiming for.<<

Yeah, the substrate is supposed to be about 1/3 the volume of the terrarium, but much depends on A) the shape of the container and B) what you want to grow. Obviously lichens don't really need much soil layer and moss will be happy with a thin layer.

>>At this point, I realized I had gathered plenty more materials than I needed. <<

That's typical. Better too much than too little, unless you have expensive ingredients.

Re: Thoughts

[scrubjayspeaks]

>>Yeah, the substrate is supposed to be about 1/3 the volume of the terrarium, but much depends on A) the shape of the container and B) what you want to grow. Obviously lichens don't really need much soil layer and moss will be happy with a thin layer.<<

Interesting. Smaller sizes, as in many crafts, make it both harder and more necessary to make fine adjustments. A larger, or at least taller, container would give more margin for error. Not to mention more headroom for putting in sticks and things, which ended up being much of what I most wanted to have in there.

Still, for a first try, they're quite cute. And now I've got some confidence to start thinking about a larger one and keeping an eye out for suitable containers. Win!

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

If you want height, look for cheap bottles of vinegar or olive oil. The better quality levels usually have a brown or green tint, but the cheap ones are almost always clear. These bottles are often relatively tall and narrow, sometimes square.

[kellan_the_tabby]

I'm looking forward to hearing how they do!

[scrubjayspeaks]

We'll see! The larger one has developed an...interesting white mold all over one of the sticks. Normally, if one of my plants looked like that, I'd be panicking. But I suppose it can decay in whatever way comes naturally to it. Worst case scenario, I dump it out, clean the jar, and try again. It's nice not to have to worry, at least.

[kellan_the_tabby]

truth! yeah, that kind of 'sit back & see' experiment is kinda fun, isn't it?