A short while ago Danielle from Finding Silver Pennies wrote a blog post about making terrariums and it got me thinking about making one myself for my desk at the day job.
You have to get a nice close look to really properly admire a terrarium. And since I have a desk job, well, I’m sitting right there for 8 hours a day. Why not add something pretty to look at, right?
So last weekend my sister and I headed over to our local Bachman’s and picked up some supplies.
And I also pulled out some stuff I already had. The glass jar was a garage sale find, and the mini Buddha and other items are from my fairy garden.
For anyone who is local and shops at Bachmans, they know that the purple striped plastic bag can only mean one thing, plants (or flowers) are inside!
In this case I have a tiny Cyclamen, a variegated flowering maple, a Selaginella and a Hemigraphis (you can barely see it, it’s that purple leaf poking out of the box in the foreground).
I followed Danielle’s instructions by washing my jar first, then adding a layer of pebbles, followed by a layer of dirt. Then I added my plants and a little more dirt to fill in around them. Finally I added my mini garden ornaments.
I might have overdone it a bit with the plants because my Buddha is barely peeking his head above them.
By the way, although I’ve had the Buddha and his little temple for a couple of years, I did notice that Bachman’s still carries them so if you are local you can still find them there.
My terrarium cost about $22 to make including the pebbles, potting soil, plants and the garage sale jar. In other words, it was about the same price as a pretty bouquet of cut flowers, but it’s going to last a bit longer.
I say a ‘bit’ longer because the cyclamen won’t be blooming forever. And there is a good chance that I will give up on the whole thing by spring and move the rest of the plants into my fairy garden. But for now I’ll take this to work and enjoy having a tiny garden on my desk while I’m waiting patiently for spring to arrive.
q is for quandie 
Such a welcome bit of Spring to make you happy every time you look at it! I love cyclamen and when the weather warms I plant them in my shade garden where they continue to bloom.
LikeLike
I didn’t know you could plant the Cyclamen outdoors! That’s a great tip Kim. I think I’ll move the Cyclamen out to the fairy garden in spring, it does get quite a bit of shade. Will it come back year to year, or will it behave more like an annual in our climate?
LikeLike
Sadly, it will not survive the winter. I have not been organized enough to dig mine up to try keep it alive indoors over the winter.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautiful! I love this and was also just there buying some baby tears (that sounds awful). There are studies that prove looking at fresh flowers and greenery reduce stress levels and improve quality of life. I’m not sure they needed a study to prove that, but it even has statistical significance with just photos of natural spaces! I first read about it in Andrew Weil’s “8 Weeks to Optimum Health”, a wonderful book. It’s a perfect time of year to bring it to the office. Very zen of you!
LikeLike
I love a good ‘baby tears’ 😉 In fact, I had some in my cart, but ended up deciding on the Selaginella instead. I’d probably be feeling more zen today if I had actually remembered to bring my terrarium into the office with me. It’s sitting right there on the table at home next to the spot where my purse was. I just looked right past it on my way out the door this morning!
LikeLike
I was wondering why it was sitting there when I got home this afternoon.
LikeLike
It looks great, and I would love to have one but I would have to have a buddy system of some type in place to keep the poor thing from dying within a week or so. I can do a lot of things, but growing plants has never been a strong suit. It’s not even a weak suit…it’s just non-existent. I’ve always envied people with green thumbs. More power to you…I will just have to admire your thumbs instead. Lol
LikeLike
“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”
― Lao Tzu
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have just come down a case of spring fever! 🙂
LikeLike
I have just come down with a case of spring fever! 🙂
LikeLike
Time to make yourself a terrarium to tide you over until spring arrives!
LikeLike
It came out great!
LikeLike
Thanks sis.
LikeLike
Hi there
I love your posts and also your style.
I was wondering what brand of rub-on graphics do you use?
I am in Brisbane Australia so hopefully I maybe able to purchase them online.
Thank you for your time.
Cheers,
Jackie Fulton
________________________________
LikeLike
I use Tim Holtz rub-on’s, here is one of my favorites on Amazon (can you order from Amazon in Australia?). But as I mentioned in one of my comments once, these are kind of small. They are great for little projects like the photo holder I posted about last week. I also used some rub-on’s from The Paper Studio on that project that I purchased at Hobby Lobby (here). Keep me posted if you find them in Australia, now I’m curious about that 🙂
LikeLike