a peek inside the fishbowl

It took me awhile, but I can finally face the truth. I was born without a green thumb. My thumb is kind of turquoise-coloured. Or maybe periwinkle. But green? No.

That’s why, when I saw this terrarium project I knew it was A Good Kind of Project For Us. It was one we could totally handle. And hopefully, no plants would be murdered in the process. (Sidebar: I just realized we used cacti and succulents and should probably keep the lid off otherwise they will rot. Darnitall. I really wanted something to help illustrate the water cycle.) 

ANYWAY.

I really struggled to find a secondhand glass jar with a lid. These are hard to come by. The one we used was from the SallyAnn and cost two dollars. ETA: It dawned on me that an ideal container would have been an oldskool goldfish bowl.

We already had a bag of dirt, so all we needed were the plants.

The small cacti only cost $1.97 at Home Depot. We bought two of those. The Hens and Chicks (which I love) were part of a larger package which cost nine. I’ll move the extras into our garden.

We did this project outdoors so I wouldn’t have to care about the crumbs of dirt that were inevitably going to cover everything.

First, we filled the jar with pebbles.

Then we mixed a bit of water with the soil to make it damp. (Damp enough to make a ball with it, but not so wet that the water drips out while you’re squeezing.)

Some of us really didn’t care if we got our hands dirty.

And then we put some of the wet soil into the jar.

… and added the plants. The tallest one was put in the middle. One kind of Hen was put on one side, another type of Hen was put on the other.

As it turned out, we bought a few too many plants. Emma re-potted one of the extras. She’s named it Rosie. Rosie lives on her windowsill now.

Here it is, almost finished. I’d like to find a dinosaur or a robot to tuck in the corner, and then it will be perfect.