How to make my first (moss) terrarium

About two weeks ago or less I got interested in having a terrarium in my room. I knew at the time it wouldn't be fun if I purchased one from a store and it would be so much more fun to make one. Almost everyday I did a lot of research on how to make a proper terrarium. Read a lot of articles and watched a lot of videos -like, a lot a lot(!)- on tutorials of how to make one, how to care for one, and how to choose the right plants and stuff. I had to do all of that because I had never made one ever before. I did, however, many times when still a kid, grow a bean in a glass using wet cotton puffs. But, that's not even close to what a terrarium should be like even though the basic idea is the same -which is to grow plant(s) in a glass container.

It's like making a mini garden in a glass container.

I'm not gonna say much up here as there will be lots of captioned photos following down below.

What to prepare:

Since I was going for a moss terrarium I went around in the neighborhood today with my two nephews who helped me out find the moss. I wanted different types of moss so that the terrarium wouldn't look boring. That's a tip you can take. If you want to go for a moss terrarium, you want at least two different types of moss which have different colors or different shapes. So, I found these two types of moss that grew on a brick fence. You can find moss mostly in a shaded area or right under a rather big tree that has lots of leaves.

This is another type of moss. I found it also on a brick fence but the area was more exposed to the sun hence the brown/orange-ish color. This is perfect to be used as a separator (will be explained a bit later) -rhymed!

This may look strange. It is actually baked dried out roots which are normally used to keep the soil away from getting clumped together. Actually, I was looking for charcoal because having charcoal in a terrarium can be important. Charcoal is basically to keep the soil away from possible odors and, in a closed environment, charcoal can filter the air and keep it fresh. I went for the roots because they were also baked in the process of making them to be the way they are.

Obviously, you need soil. Preferably potting soil that you can buy at any garden oriented store (lol. what do you call such store?)

Depending on the size of the container you can pick any plants that you want to grow in the terrarium. Since I was aware of the exact size of my container I knew that this plant was perfect. And also, more importantly, when choosing the plant, you wanna make sure that it grows in the same or in a very similar environment as the other plants in the terrarium. I found this little plant under a big shading tree and it was wet, and... it didn't grow on plain soil but on concrete ground with a thin layer of soil. You don't need to clean the roots from the sticking soil because it's better that way to help it grow in the terrarium more naturally.

I totally forgot to take a picture of the most important part of making a terrarium. You need pebbles/small rocks. You wanna use them for drainage so that the water won't gather on the bottom together with the soil. You want the water to evaporate in the terrarium so that it goes back up.

Second layer is the baked roots or charcoal.

Third layer is the dry moss as the separator between the drainage section and the soil. You need this separator because you do not want the soil to go straight down to the pebbles when watering or misting the plants. You can actually use a proper filter which actually works better. Mosquito net will do, too.

Fourth layer is the soil.

Here comes the fun part. It's time to arrange where you want to put the plants and everything else. You may want to use a stick to help you dig in the soil and arrange whatever you put in or on it if your container has a small opening which doesn't allow your hand to get in.
That's the end of the steps. You can always add decorative items that, you think, will look appropriate in the terrarium. I didn't put anything fancy but a couple of thin rocks in between the mosses.

What to know:
When it comes to caring for a terrarium, generally it requires low maintenance.
1. You do not always need to water the plants. This can be fatal if you do it wrong. Note: if you have a closed terrarium, you only want to water it once in the beginning before you put the lid on. You may leave it without getting watered for many days and even weeks. Why? It is because the water evaporates and does not go out. It self-mists. However, you may want to open the lid every week or so just to refresh the air. If you do notice that the soil looks dry, you can mist it. Make sure you don't over mist it.
2. You don't want to place the terrarium in direct sunlight. You need to place it in a bright place, though.
3. Use a stick or your fingers if possible to take out the dead leaves.
4. You may want to wipe using paper the inner side of the terrarium right above the soil line because the mineral may dry out and leave white mark. This is just to make the terrarium clean looking all the time.

I believe there are more things that you need to know of how to care for a terrarium but I could only give you some of them for now. I'm not an expert to begin with, anyway. Hehe!

By the way, here are some pictures of my finished first terrarium for you to enjoy! :)


























Let me know if you feel inspired to wanna make one as well! :D

If I did something wrong in the steps of making the terrarium, let me know because this was my first time -although I did a lot of rather careful research.

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