Memeza » Garden

How to build a Terrarium

memeza — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 04:05:39 +0000

You’ve reached here with the expectation of learning how to build a terrarium. Before I get to that, it’s helpful to know what a terrarium is best suited for. From our favorite encyclopedia, Wikipedia:

A terrarium can be formed to create a temperate woodland habitat, and even a jungle-like habitat. This can be created with pebbles, leaf litter and soil. By misting the terrarium, a natural water cycle occurs within the environment by condensation forming on the lid causing precipitation. Many kinds of plants are suitable for these habitats, including bromeliads, African Violets and Crassulaceae.

Here are the steps we followed to build our terrarium:

Find a large jar with a lid and fill it with marbles, pebbles or river rock. Ideally these will be up no larger than 1/4″ and should be spread on the bottom of the jar up-to 2″ deep.
Add a layer of sphagnum moss on top of the stones. The moss helps prevent the soil that you add from filling up the spaces between the marbles, pebbles or gravel.
Add a 1/2″ layer of activated charcoal which will help filter the air and prevent odors and excess water build up at the bottom of the jar. From the research I did online, a lot of filters in aquariums use activated charcoals. I ended up crushing some real wood charcoal and using this.
Add 2-3″ of soil. Depending on the size of the jar you may need more, but, in general try and use a soil that isn’t filled with fertilizers.
Select the plant for your terrarium and pot the plant to ensure the roots are covered
Use a mist-spray bottle to water the plant as needed or recommended

If you decide to follow the steps above, here’s a basic shopping list for a garden center where you’ll find many of the supplies needed for your terrarium:

Glass jar or vase with lid
River rock, marbles or pebbles
Sphagnum moss
Activated charcoal
Soil
Plant
Mist-Spray bottle

Are slugs good for my garden?

memeza — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 04:01:48 +0000

For the past two years we have been noticing an increase in the number of slugs that seem to have some sort of attraction to our garden. From the research I’ve done online, slugs are great food for birds but have no significant benefits in the garden.

We tried some non chemical ways of trying to get rid of them from our garden and haven’t had much success. We have tried salt and stale beer and the slug population continues to thrive. In fact when we stumbled on the slug eggs it was time to look for a better solution.

Ever seen slug eggs?

We’d like to try some of the Ortho Ecosense garden products to address this slug population issue, but we’re not convinced that the products are truly earth friendly. The product indicates the active ingredients are:

Iron phosphate 1.0%
Other Ingredients 99.0%

What’s in the other ingredients? Should we try and avoid using this product in our garden?

Mason Jar

memeza — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:55:45 +0000

Spring is in the air.