this terrarium lives here and in part one of this series i'm going to show you how i made it
it differs from the kinds of terrariums that i usually make because i've only used plants
that live outside in the uk all year round as tropical plants would not survive the winter
last year i left this terrarium outside during the warmer months and it grew astonishingly well
it was sat in a position where it could see a lot of the sky but it was out of
direct sunlight which was pretty much perfect for it it gave me the idea to
create a terrarium that would live outside all year round and this is how i made it
so i'm gonna go to my local community garden collect some leaf litter ivy and some topsoil
now i'm using topsoil because i want to introduce some beneficial bacteria and microorganisms
to the terrarium as it's living outside all year round and i think this would be beneficial for it
so this is the jar that i'm going to use it's nice and thick has an airtight lid
and i'm going to plant it on its side like this so that there's more room for the plants to grow
for soil i'm going to use some of the collected topsoil i got from the community gardens
i'm going to mix that with loads of leaf litter um i'm going to use some orchid bark which is...
which is right here! so this is the soil we have the leaf litter
lava rock pine bark and then the topsoil i'm going to give this a good mix together
getting soil into a jar with a small opening can be messy
so i cut this funnel down to its widest point which makes getting the soil in so much easier
once the soil is in i lie the bottle flat and spread the soil out
i press it down lightly being mindful not to compact it too much
this moss grew incredibly well on top of a bonsai pot but i'm unsure what species it is
i've used it in terrariums before and it works very well i cover the majority of the soil surface
with it before planting the rest of the plants the light green really makes this terrarium pop
when placing the cuttings in the jar i make sure that the root is in contact with the moss or soil
the terrarium will be out in the cold so the cuttings will take much longer to root
and will need all the help they can get
ross from picton gardens gave me this pot of baby western sword ferns they grow pretty big
so would definitely outgrow the terrarium but as always i'll just prune them when need to be
i like the idea of the terrarium being jam-packed full of ferns and ivy
so that was part one of this video series and i'd really like to know your thoughts
let me know if you think this terrarium is going to survive or fail
as always thank you very much for watching and i'll see you in the next video
you