DIY a Home Terrarium

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Add some much-needed greenery to your winter by making a self-contained ecosystem for a magical, miniature indoor garden. Ruth Monahan of Appassionata Flowers shows you how…

Perfect for people with no gardens or limited outdoor space, terrariums are a brilliant way to feel like a gardener – without actually having a garden. And truth be told, once your bespoke ecosystem is set up, it requires little skill to keep your plant alive – beyond keeping a watchful eye on hydration and giving a light misting every few weeks. Here, Ruth Monahan, creative director of Dublin’s floral boutique Appassionata Flowers, shows?you?how it’s done.

YOU WILL NEED
? Plant (decide on one or more succulents, or other suitable plants that you love;’see below for suggestions)
? Terrarium or another repurposed glass container that you think will look great at home (remember to choose a container with a wide opening to prevent accumulation of moisture)
? Soil: you need to use succulent soil or else mix peat moss with sand/gravel and perlite (2:1:1 ratio)
? Stones
? Lichen or moss (optional)
? Sand (optional)

Click through the gallery above in fullscreen mode for the step-by-step…

Top terrarium?tips and tricks
? Don’t place your terrarium outside; the plants will start to flatten out and leaves will fall off as they don’t like the cold.
? Water/spray your terrarium only every two weeks or just keep the soil damp. The most common way to kill a plant is overwatering!
? Make sure it has at least five hours? daylight daily and is not in direct sunlight, or the plants will burn through the glass.
? If using a fully closed container, take the top off for several hours a day to allow the plants to breathe.
? Fertilise only in the summer (May through September).
? If using air plants, be sure not to water them, because they live off dust molecules in the air.

Seven terrific terrarium plants
? Echeveria (possibly the most popular genus of succulent; try the purple ?Perle von N?rnberg?, one of the most stunning varieties)
? Crassula (another type of succulent, which includes the popular jade plant, Crassula ovata)
? Haworthia (beautiful small rosette-forming succulents)
? Senecio (ragwort or groundsel)
? Sansevieria (mother-in-law’s tongue or snake plant)
? Aloe (go for familiar aloe vera or try the more unusual Aloe marlothii)
? Tillandsia (air plant)

Find a great collection of terrarium containers at Appassionata Flowers.

Photography Nathalie Marquez Courtney