terrarium design does not need to be complicated and in this video i'll be giving you six simple
immediately applicable tips that will up your terrarium game i promise you that these tips will
make you a better terrarium maker and stick around to the end because i'll be giving you a bonus tip
tip number one pick a front in bonsai every tree has a front which is the side that the
tree looks best from and of course it makes sense to accentuate this side when displaying
the tree it's the same with terrariums and when you're planting one you need to think
about which side is going to be displayed when it's finished here are some things you can do to
help this arrange the contents of the terrarium in a way that focuses on the stronger aspects
for example if there is a particular plant or hardscape feature that you like then make it the
focal point or if the glassware is particularly nice then keep things minimal if your glassware
has join marks then keep them on the sides out of view i can't tell you how annoying it is to
spend time planting a terrarium only to realize that there is a joint mark right in the middle
keep the front tidy now i don't care much for perfection and actively discourage it
but that doesn't mean you can't take care so if you're using masks at the front then clean up any
debris from it before planting or use a paintbrush or tweezers to clean it up once you're done trim
any messy or dying leaves from plants before using them and once the terrarium is finished
give the glass a thorough clean keeping the front tidy makes the terrarium look much better
tip number two arrange the substrate on a gradient this leads on nicely from tip number one and it's
something i do all the time in terrariums large and small by arranging the substrate on a gradient
it will add a sense of depth scale and interest to your terrariums by increasing the surface area
visible from the front view when a terrarium is fully planted it might not be immediately
obvious that the substrate is arranged on a gradient but it does add a nice subtle
touch it's really easy to do and here's how you do it once the soil is in the terrarium
use your hand or a paintbrush to push the majority of the soil towards the back of the container
give it a spray with some water so it stays in place and it's ready for planting
tip number three use a nice looking material as your drainage layer you could have made the
world's best looking terrarium but if you use an ugly drainage layer and i'm looking at you
coloured aquarium gravel then it just spoils the whole thing choose a small grained neutral
material that is close to the substrate colour i like to use lekker which comes in varying sizes
and for big terrariums i use the larger balls and in smaller terrariums the smaller ones
lava rock and akadama are good materials to use if on the expensive side
so i only use them in small terrariums activated charcoal is an option but again it's expensive and
is quite messy so i tend to avoid this moler clay is also good but it looks very pink when it's dry
it does soften slightly when it's moist so i do consider it a good material to use as a drainage
layer you'll want to avoid anything that is large or bright in color i say this a lot but
i am skeptical of the effectiveness of a drainage layer within a terrarium and in many cases i omit
this all together and just don't use one if i do use one then i keep it on the small side because
the terrarium is about the plants after all and not the drainage layer tip number four
use odd numbers and avoid symmetry i worked as a gardener for a while and i was lucky enough to
work with a very good one and one thing i noticed she always did was planting threes or odd numbers
and to keep things in triangles i tried adopting this and one day when i was planting some ferns
in the woodland garden she came over to me and said ben when i said triangles i didn't mean
equalateral triangles think more scalene so i dug up the ferns and learnt a valuable lesson
which has stuck with me and i use it when i'm making my terrariums when planting plants
using cuttings or hardscape features within a terrarium i keep things in threes fives or sevens
and i avoid symmetry like the plague think scalene triangles tip number five don't over
plant it's so easy to do this in trying to cram every nice plant you have into a small container
is just going to create a messy and cluttered terrarium it's often far stronger just to use
a few plants and to give them the space they need to shine for example in a small terrarium
using two or three plants is far more effective than using seven or eight in fact even just using
one plant in a terrarium it can be incredibly effective immediately filling the space just means
that the terrarium is going to overgrow quicker and you're going to have to prune it sooner don't
be afraid to leave space for the plants to grow into here's the bonus tip ditch the perfectionism
this is something i've been guilty of in the past and all it did was stop me moving forwards
perfection does not exist especially in the world of terrariums so the sooner you
drop those expectations and just get on with making terrariums the quicker you'll get better
i'm not saying you can't take care and that you should haphazardly throw your builds together
but have a realistic expectation of what you're doing with your own level of experience
everyone can grow and get better at something all you have to do is practice
make mistakes and learn from them so i hope you got value from this video and if you'd like to
see more content on plants and terrariums then consider subscribing to my channel because i
upload new videos every single thursday and if you'd like to continue this discussion then come
and join my beginner friendly facebook discussion group it's called terrarium group and the link
is in the description below thank you very much for watching and i'll see you in the next video
so