Miniature Garden Art: Create a Magical Forest Terrarium

1. Intro to Terrariums: Hey, everyone. My name's Kelly Newbury and I'm from Potato Plan. I've lived in apartment the last 14 years. I am SOO Protection is about finding different ways to bring the outdoors in. And one of the best ways to bring a little piece of major into your own home is by a herbarium. So today's plus I will teach you how to make a beautiful forest. Terreri in basically, you're creating a miniature world inside a jar or glass vessel that you can keep in your heart. They're really low maintenance and easy to make. Plus, they make the perfect gift. So enrolling to my class today and learn how to make one of these little magical wonderlands. 2. Materials You Need: All right, so to begin with, let's run through the different materials you'll need to make your very own indoor friend, Terreri. Um, so to start with, you need to choose some sort of vessel to put your terrarium in. There's a lot of different things you can use. I'm just using a plain old coffee job that I've taken label off because I like to be able to use things that I've got lying around the heart. You can also put just glass jaws and beautiful glass containers. It's up to you whether you get one that does or doesn't have a lid because we have working with fans. It's better if it does, but it's not a deal breaker if it doesn't have a little next up. We've got some fresh river sand here. We've got sphagnum moss. Sphagnum moss comes compacted in a really taught brick, and it weighs practically nothing. And then you need to wet it yourself to get it in a malleable form. We've got green must both of these things you can get sort of from your local nurseries or flower markets, and then we put a variety of different pebbles. Now it's important that you have some really small pebbles like this color is entirely up to you. And it's not to be. I'm gonna have a bit of contrast with different sized pebbles. You also need at least one big rock or piece of wood. Now will use this for our landscaping. So it is important that you have one. That's it bigger than the others. And finally, we've got different phones over here. I've just picked really hearty versions, actually steer clear things like made and clearly because they're a bit more fragile. And they were far a bit more off. Old defense I've selected are actually native to Australia. But the things that you used should be native to your local area. So if you're at the Nasseri just awesome what they recommend for a terrarium, my friends will actually do really well, so you don't need to worry too much. All right, now let's start constructing out Terreri. Um 3. Creating Your Terrarium: Okay, let's get started. The first thing you need to do is to put about an inch of sand at the bottom of your glass terrarium. Now the reason that we do this is because Sand doesn't have any organic matter in it. It's not living, and we need to make sure that at the bottom of at Terreri in, we have a layered. It's not living because the last thing we want is for it to start growing any sort of mould or anything like that. So put in your sand and you need to compact it down as you go. This is really important because otherwise you'll find other things will slip down into it , and we want to keep out. Different line is really nice and neat, so put just a little bit more in. One of the biggest mistakes people make with terrariums is putting in too many layers. Remember, the main feature is actually your ferns and your plants. It's not these different liars, so less is often more with this stuff with the sand. It's nice to run your finger around edge off the bowl to get a really sort of nice, smooth finish make sure that it's just pushed down. Really family. Okay, okay, so that is our first layer down. Next up will be putting in some really small rocks. So select your smallest rocks and start to put them into your tour area. - So it's really important that you press these What's down? Nice and term again. You want between sort of 1/2 inch an inch. It will depend on the size of your job. Now we're going to start using this wonderful sphagnum moss. Now, to do this, we use it in a few different ways throughout the tour area. To start with, what we're going to do is roll this Magnum mosque ghosted everywhere. Bring it out. If you need to know, we've got a nice, long sort of choose. And now we're placing this around the edge about two rare IAM. Do you have any large tweets or anything? Just move those out again. We're pressing it down nice and tightly as we go. Now, you can see in the middle that we've left a nice Well, what we're going to do is fill this with soil and the potting mix that will use is the polytechnics from the ferns that we've selected. The reason that we do this is because it's giving them the best shot of life. We want them. Teoh work in a familiar environment and grow in that familiar environment. This one doesn't have much access, toe. All right, we'll try. And on the way, just gently put them to the side. When you're not working with them, I think we'll have a bit more luck with this one. Oh, yeah, this one's only got a tiny, tiny root system, which means we've got all the soil in this troupe stock. Now you can't unfortunately, just pour it straight in because aim of the game is to fill the well with the help getting too much debt on the side. If you like me and you do get a bit of doubt on the side, just slowly scrape it off with your finger. Now we're just getting little bits of soil as we are feeling that well in the middle of the speculum balls. One thing I should have mentioned that the stock is that you need to make sure you can fit your hand in and out of your glass vessel so test that out before you go out and buy anything. - Okay , So once you have filled the well with soil were onto out next layer. So as you can see here, none of the soil is actually touching the edge of the glass. It's got that sphagnum moss around edge. Now the next layer is another layer off your smaller pebbles. And again we're going to put it just around the edge like we did with this bag. Normal. So start with small amounts and just gently put them around the edge. - Now we have another little well to fill with soil. So we'll continue using the soil. Prune that shoud stop actually a pressing it down as you go. - Okay , so now, as you can say, it will speak careful that you don't lose a leg, a little stones. Now, as you can see, we've got our different layers and it's time to actually stop landscaping so you can see my job's already halfway full if you have a small a giant too small Elias. But we need to make sure this plenty of room build up the landscape about Terreri in the way We're going to do that is by using a big rock or a piece of wood, Whatever you've got handy. So now we get into the fun part. Basically, we want a position out rock somewhere in the middle and really wedge it in to help Rigid in , we can use either average loss or else Magnum. Most If you want a really green forest, be sort of Terreri in the news. A green Most if you're going for more of a rustic look than you can continue to use your sphagnum ALS. Now, if you're using grain, most you want to peel it away from the back layer and try to get rid of some of these sticks because they don't look right in the Terreri. Um, so this one has lots of needles. Where we get out most from is from a pine first, which is why we have all these pine needles throughout it. And there's even some little teeny tiny pine cones, too. So we'll clear those out. We got a bit of a clump of pine cones here, which is interesting. All right. Now get a nice come from Green folded in on itself, and use that to ricin on the side off your wrong. Same on the other side. Wait. Just using amongst toe edge in a row. So now you need to decide which is going to be the front and which is going to be the back of your Terreri. Um, because we are only going to build up the back of Attari area. So I'm going to use this section here as the front and the back section as the back. So for consistency sake, I'm going Teoh put some more green moss around the back so that that sort of follows on around from the side. All that's gonna get too many tweets. We're just doing a green. Most layout around the back way still have a well at the back. So we will use our soil to fill that well. It's always easier to work with smaller amounts, even though it's tempting to just throw it all away. Okay, now we're onto putting some more rocks. Ann Atterbury, Um, I'm going to start using the bigger rocks. Now, if you were just using one type of rock, that's fine. Just keep using it, and we're putting it. What's along the edge on top of our green most to press it down in just a couple on the edge. I don't really want it to go at the front just yet, but that's fine. If a couple do fall down and now it's time to plan out first fan. So I'm going to use this teeny, tiny little red one. This guy will actually grow really well in a tour area, and that's why you want to start with quite a small plant. If you are going to use these funds, I want to meet the front because he's a nice, different bright color. So let's put him in. To start with, we need to dig a teeny tiny little will interact or area, and then we're just slicing him and gently grab a little bit of extra soil. Very humid, very easy Govett, and we're still trying to keep the soil of way from edges. Just make sure none of these routes are exposed. Now it's up to you how full you want your Terreri in to be and how many plants you want to add to it. Some people like a really full, full, full Terreri, Um, from the get guard I like to leave enough room so that the plants can grow and really turn into something spectacular. So I'm not going to add an extra plant down there. But what I will do is put some greenery in using the green moss. If you're not using green moss, you can also just use a big pebble or something like that to cover up that I don't like to have any dirt in my terrarium. So I on view in my career? A So that's why I'm adding in this rain malls. Okay, Now I'm going to add a plant to the side of my Terreri. I'm saving my bigger friends to go up the back. Sort of a focal point. We're going to dig a little hole in you next to my broke and place him in. If you need to add a little soiled, go right ahead. As you can see now we have some on the side which I don't like the look off. So I will be using must just sort of cover that up as best I can and finally lost plan time . I'm gonna put three clients in mind. I mean, we're going to put three plants in mind, but it's up to you. If you do prefer that follow look right from the start, Feel free to add more, so dig a little. Well, get off any of that excess oil. This planet, as you can see, has quite long routes. If that's the case, what you need to do is kind of just very gently wrapped them up and around themselves like this. You don't have space to dig, really date. So you may need to do that before you place it into your Well, I had some of my little brooks schooling. This one doesn't need too much extra slim, but a few more of these rocks on just to sort of finish it off. And there was up to you if you want to add some lodger pebbles like this to your tour area . So I was quite a small job, so I'm not going to have much space toe. But I do like to add a couple, especially that great full covering up any little bits of soil that is sort of showing. And make sure that you're pressing everything down nice and taut, lace or nothing sort of loose and waving around trackable rocks. You do need to pick it up and have a look at it to try and decide if it needs anything more . And they have it. Your own beautiful forest mini world. Terreri. Um, Now, if you have any figurines that you'd like to add, or crystals or anything to personalize your tour area, you can always do that at the end to So here we have it. You conceal the different beautiful layers and the lovely Furnari coming out of it. 4. Terrarium Care: all right. Now we're on to caring for your beautiful Terreri in and good news. It's really, really easy. If you have a glass vessel that you can put a little and leave the lid on, you are only going to need to board a your terrarium once a month. How easy is that now? Little you don't like the lid. I don't particularly like this lips. You will need to water it slightly more frequently. Water it, give it a good 3 to 5 quits plant in that. So I've got three plans, which means all putting about 12 12 minutes as that's actually it. You really made the water by and misting either once every two weeks. If it doesn't have a lid or once per month, if it does have a lid. Now, if it doesn't have a lid, maybe just put a plate over once or twice a week toe. Let it really build up that condensation. Occasionally, you'll need to also just white out the inside of your career, and this is to make sure any bacteria and mold doesn't get in there. So it's really simple. This bluff is probably a little bit too big to this. Very, um, all we're doing is just wiping around the edge. Gently. Let's do it off to you. Water. And occasionally, really, that's all there is to it. Thanks so much for joining me today and learning how to make your own Terreri in in a jar. I really hope you've enjoyed the class, and I would love to see some of your finished your area, so make sure you upload a project with photos into the project gallery. If you've enjoyed making a Terreri in today, make sure you check out some of my other gardening and art classes.