Mossy Gardens Part 2

For Part 1 go here.

Materials:
You'll have enough to make several good sized terrariums. Why not make some for Christmas gifts?

Activated Carbon ($5)
Keeps your Garden clean and stink free. Can be found in any aquarium section of a pet store. One bottle will treat lots of terrariums.

Dirt ($4)
Use some nice potting soil so you know its free of disease and bugs (Free if you've got some lying around)



Small rocks/gravel or sand ($3)
Keeps your carbon from going to the bottom of your jar.



Covered Jars (less than $2/piece at thrift store)
Covered is key here, less maintenance and makes your garden virtually kill proof.



Moss (free)
Take a nice walk with your family to a local park and watch the ground as you walk. You'll be surprised at the different varieties, textures, and colors you can find! Bring a ziploc baggie with you to transport the moss home. Be careful of not taking too much moss form any one place, we don't want to mess up nature's beauty!



Bigger Rocks
Pick these up on your walk too, or if you have some of these glass gems lying around, feel free to use those!



Spray Bottle
For watering. I bought one of those little travel size spray bottles (like for hair spray) for about $0.50 and keep it next to my mossy garden. If you are giving your gardens away, it's nice to include a spray bottle as well.

So how do we put it all together? First wash your jars in hot soapy water. Then layer your ingredients in this order:

• A thin layer of larger rocks, enough to cover the bottom
• An even thinner layer of gravel/small rocks or sand. Just enough to fill in the large crevices of your previous layer. This is to keep your dirt and carbon from falling to the bottom of the jar, and for drainage
• A small handful of carbon (it does not need to cover the previous layer)
• Add a nice even layer of potting soil. You can create "hills" by adding more soil up against a wall of the jar
• Now gently tear pieces of moss to your desired size and place on top of the soil. Add interest by mixing up the different kinds of moss.
• For the first watering I like to use a cup to gently pour water into the terrarium and make sure everything gets watered. A little water goes a long way.
• Cover your jar and you are done!
• Water with your sprayer once every 2 weeks or so. Just a couple of misting sprays is all it takes!

This is my favorite jar ever! $1.75 at the thrift store and it is mushroom shaped! Perfect for a Mossy Garden!


Look at all the different textures!

Mossy Gardens Part: 1

I must confess a deep dark secret:

I'm a serial plant killer.

There I said it, glad that is off my chest, it feels so much better to have that out in the open.

For all of my craftiness mojo I have been blessed with it seems I make up for it with my lack of horticulture mojo. Don't get me wrong, my garden does ok... but only because I let Mother Nature do 99% of the work. Any plant brought into the house though, that's a different story. I feel sorry for any plant brought into my home either by myself, or by some wonderful friend or relative who gifted me with said plant. Any plant brought into my home is pretty much guaranteed a one-way ticket to that lovely garden in the sky. It's only a matter of time - trust me I know.

See this lovely Hibiscus:
That's what it looked like when I got it in July. Yes a mere month and a half ago. I won't show you what it looks like now, I'm too ashamed. Honestly it would be completely dead if Mr. PD hadn't stepped in and taken over caring for it.

You think I would have inherited my mom's green thumb - I would have been happy with just a fingernail! My mom doesn't even have to try. Everything sprouts, blooms, and grows for her. She called me the other day and told me how she had eaten some cherries and so she took a few of the pits out of her mouth and "tossed" them into a flower pot. 2 weeks later they have sprouted! Cherries People!

I have finally found something I can't kill: MOSS

I've seen mossy terrariums popping up all over the internet. You can find tons on Etsy and Flickr. I gave it a go at some of these lovelies in TN and guess what? YES I killed them! ok it was through no fault of my own, well sort of.

I recently got in touch with Patricia of DoodleBirdie on Etsy. She has some of the greenest, prettiest terrariums I have seen. She was kind enough to answer my main question: Why did my terrariums die? She got to the root of the problem very quickly. It seems my terrariums died simply because I didn't have them in an enclosed environment. She had some open air moss gardens and told me that even she killed them some times! It seems it is a lot harder to keep the moss alive in an open container!

So I made some terrariums and they have been alive for the last month!!! They are even green, healthy and growing!!! I will be posting a tutorial early next week on how to make your own mossy garden terrariums.

If you are not up to making your own or already have one, head on over to DoodleBirdie's and she'll set you up. She's got mossy gardens and the cutest terrarium decor I have seen!

Blue bird house

Gnome Wash Day