When your husband is visiting North America for three weeks, your sleeping patterns take a bit of a knock. Being six hours behind me now, I find myself waking up to call or text Craig at somewhat ghastly hours of the morning! I then tend to lie in bed for a while trying to nod back off to sleep. When this doesn't work, I whip the ol' iPad out and go where every person goes for entertainment and inspiration these days. Pinterest.
And the other night I came across loads of pins of terrariums. Okay, now this is where I get confused, because when I then searched terrariums, I found out that some people also called them terraniums?
Anyway, these little bottled ecosystems just look so organic and fresh, I simply had to try and make one for myself.
It's pretty easy too - kind of like layering a trifle, or a lasagne even.
Step One: Buy your plants, pebbles and glass container. I planned on having mine inside so made sure I bought plants that don't require any sunlight. Ferns and moss should do the trick. I also bought a bag of river sand to layer the bottom.
Step Two: Begin layering. River sand at the bottom, followed by the soil. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Step Three: It was only when I got to this point that I realised my challenge with the very tight necked bottle I had bought. Luckily I was wearing my thinking cap this morning, because braai/barbeque tongs come in extremely handy indeed, should you need them. I chopped my plants into smaller sections so that they would fit into the bottle nicer. Once you've done this, just pick them up with your tongs and you can pretty easily manouvre them into the bottle.
Step Four: With all the sand and soil being thrown around, things will get rather messy in there. The last step is basically to just clean up any marks. Seal your bottle... et voila!
You will see that once the green fingers had set in that I even made a baby terranium - he's cute!
Go forth and be green. Enjoy the rest of your Sundays!
xxx
