Terrariums Gone Wrong

Amanda Thomsen, contributor

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I had this great idea to make terrariums out of stuff I'm long on, mainly baby food jars, but somewhere it went horribly wrong. I thought I'd meditate on what would make them better, other than a house fire, but then I realized I have YOU to tell me off.

Here's what I did:

1. I found a length of birch in a ditch. it drew me in from miles away, the lichen is just right. I pulled over, crossed traffic and grabbed it. It's been waiting for a purpose since then. That was a year ago.

2. I have baby food jars everywhere. I have a hard time parting with them, as they are cute and useful.

3. I put a little soil in each jar and topped it with fresh moss (with roots) from a good florists'. It's not that easy to come by, I'm sure. But I realized that I bet it's pretty easy to fake a terrarium with all the great dried mosses that are out there... What is the worst that could happen? It rots?

4. Then I topped each one with something dumb before I capped them up and strung them. One has glitter, one has a bakellite cake ornament (it tipped over), one has pink PEZ and one has a Cheap Trick guitar pick. It's not like it matters because they all promptly spin to face the wrong side once I hung them.

Ok, why is it lackluster? Would it have been better if I had used wire? More jars? Bigger jars? What's the deal? Is it a bad idea from the beginning?

Let me hear your suggestions, even if you just hate the color of my living room...

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Comments (4)

DisneyButterfly writes: Cover the birch with spag moss with fishing string so you can't see it then attached aritifical orchids, etc to it also. And yes, some jars turned upside down attach lids with screws so you can screw jar on it upside down. Could even put some battery operated tiny white christmas light on log or somebattery twinkle light inside jars to look like fireflieswould be neat. Posted: 4:25 pm on February 2nd

Lynne7D writes: Odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye, so try 5, 7, or even 9 jars. Posted: 10:58 pm on January 31st

Robertgwebber writes: Forget the terrariums and hang your snow globes from the pole. Then you can use the pole to give them all a darn good simultaneous shakin!
Fab post!
What I can see of your sitting room seems cool if unexpected
Best
R Posted: 12:54 am on January 31st

Chiots_Run writes: I think bigger jars and wires to hang the jars straighter. I think these little jars would be great if you used a used a spade bit to drill shallow rounds into the log to nestle the little jars in. Then hang it a bit lower. Posted: 7:02 pm on January 30th

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