How to Make a Terrarium

Choose Your Container

Look for a jar or container with a wide mouth
Keep in mind ideally you don’t want plants touching the sides of your container

Choose Your Plants

Make sure they are small enough to fit in your terrarium.
Use plants that don’t mind a humid environment & like low to medium light.
Use a mix of sizes, leaf textures and leaf colors.

Good plants for Terrariums include Ferns, Coffee Plants, Baby Tears, Philodendron, Pothos, Arboricola, Palms, Dracaena.

If you are set on using succulents or cactus, you will want to make a topless terrarium and add clean, course sand to your potting mix or use Cactus Potting Mix.

Add Drainage Layers

Since you will not have drainage holes, you’ll want to create a place for extra water to go that keeps it away from your plants roots.
You can put a layer of sheet moss in the bottom to soak up extra water
You can also start with a layer of pebbles, coarse sand or pea gravel.
 Put at least a 2” layer of  in the bottom.
Next, use a large spoon, add 1/4-1/2” Horticultural Charcoal on top of the stones.
The purpose of this is to help drainage and control any odor that might occur.

Add Moss and Potting Mix

Add moss on top of the stones and charcoal. This is to keep your next layer, potting soil, from mixing with the charcoal and stones. This step is optional.
With a large spoon or small shovel, add potting mix on top of your moss or charcoal. Add as much potting mix as you can-at least a couple of inches. If your potting mix “clumps” when squeezed, add some Perlite or Vermiculite to lighten it up.

Add Plants

Good rule of thumb: tall plants in back, shorter plants in front.
You can add contour to your terrarium with different levels of soil.
Remove plants from pots. If root bound, you will want to tease the roots apart,
even cutting some off.
By cutting off roots, called root pruning, you will also retard the plants growth.
You can gently pull apart plants to separate them.
Using a large spoon, fingers, a chopstick, or other tools, dig a hole in potting mix.  Place plant in hole and gently pat soil around it, making sure there are no air pockets between roots and soil.

Add Extras

You can embellish your terrarium with decorative stones, marbles, miniatures, shells or other items as desired.

Watering

Using a spray bottle or watering can with fine mist spout, water.
You don’t want it to be soaking wet, just damp.

Care

Check every couple of weeks to see if your terrarium needs water.  Feel soil to see if it is dray and add water if it is.

If your terrarium is closed, take off top at least once a month to air it out.
If you see lots of condensation, leave top off until it has had a chance to dry out.
Pull off any leaves that show signs of yellowing or damage and prune plants if they grow too large.

Don’t fertilize because you don’t want to encourage growth.