Fairy Garden Terrarium

My brother, Derek and cousin, Nicole made a Fairy Garden Terrarium at work and wanted to share! So here is how to make your own...

Some Finished Pictures

1st: Choose your jar or other terrarium piece

You'll need to find an apothecary jar or some other jar that can be closed and opened easily.  We used a house designed for Terrariums, and Sunrise has a few empty ones on hand to sell.  

Next: Fill it with stones

The next steps to making your own fairy garden terrarium or any terrarium is adding stones for drainage.  We used pea gravel since it's a little more decorative, but any sort of small stone should work.  The stones should be approximately 1" thick. 

Add Charcoal for filtering

It's important to add Charcoal in order to filter the water.  Otherwise, the terrarium and the water could become stagnant.  Be careful not to touch the Charcoal because it will stain your hands.  It's best to pour directly from the bag.  

Add the soil

We used Garden's Gold by Master Nursery which we sell in 1 cubic foot bags for $5.99 and 2 cubic foot bags for $9.99.  It's organic and full or nutrient, and we recommend it over any Miracle-Gro potting soil or any other potting soil.  If you're only planting moss, the soil can be as thin as 1."  We used moss and other plants, so we put more soil in the back and sloped it towards the front.  

Plant it up!

For terrariums, it's best to use shade to part sun plants.  Moss does well in terrariums.  We used a variety of plants in our terrarium.  We used Irish moss, Asparagus fern, some of the dried moss pieces we sell, and two mini bushes, a golden Juniper and a miniature holly.  The Irish moss comes in the perennial quart for $2.50.  Asparagus fern is sold in a 3" pot for $1.50.  The golden Juniper and miniature holly are both sold for $13.99

We added our large accessory piece, the swing, with the plants to assure our terrarium had enough space to accommodate it. 

Add the accessories

Add all the fairy garden essentials to your terrarium.  Feel free to add a pea gravel path or other rocks to add to the illusion.

Water

Water your terrarium about once a week.  It shouldn't be too dry, but make sure not to over water it.  Use a mister or mist setting on a hose nozzle sprayer to ensure that the dirt and delicate plants do not come undone. Preferably, place your terrarium in indirect sunlight in your house.

Merchandise used in this terrarium

Terrarium piece: $84.99

Mini Copper Swing: $16.99

Mini Bird Feeder: $4.99

Plants

Mother Lode Juniper: $13.99

Miniature Holly: $13.99

Asparagus Fern: $1.50

Irish Moss: $2.50

Other moss like plant: $5.99

Moss

Charcoal from Fertilome: $7.99 for entire bag

Gardener's Gold: $9.99 for a 2 cubic foot bag

Pea Gravel: $2.99 for 1/2 cubic foot bag

Terrarium Price $164.99

Most of our information on how to plant a terrarium came from http://www.thenester.com/2010/03/terrarium-101-a-guest-post.html

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