With the gardening season basically wrapped up, I am settling in for winter. This includes getting to all of those indoor projects that I’ve been putting off for months (I’m looking at you powder room!), as well as creating new projects to do (because I just love to pile on the projects!). One of those projects that I’ve been wanting to do for awhile is put together a little terrarium. I’ve made some simple terrariums before using just plants and glass vessels but I’ve always killed them by getting high maintenance plants (that’s my theory anyway).

Terrariums have intrigued me ever since they started to gain popularity a couple of years ago. The reason I think I am so attracted to them is that they remind me of building dioramas in school as a kid but also because they allow creativity in the gardening world. Sometimes gardening gets a bad rap as being an old person activity, which I am fine with because I’m basically a 75 year old woman at heart, but gardening can also be an excellent creative outlet for people of any age.

I mentioned it above, but I took my inspiration from building dioramas in school as a kid, as well as a bit of inspiration from my model train-crazed brother-in-law who has an amazing layout. I would love to be able to dedicate the time and money into making adult-like dioramas in shadow boxes but I thought I’d start small to begin with. I had a lot of fun putting together the terrarium itself but also a ton of fun searching online before-hand for inspiration and ideas, including this X-Files themed terrarium (!!!!!), but in the end, I decided to put together my own. I might still do a version of the X-Files one, it is pretty amazing (we’re huge X-Files geeks in my house!).

So here is the finished terrarium in all of its glory – a little family that have all piled in to the car during summer vacation stopping to take a photo. I kept it fairly simple but I may do some revisions, such as adding a dead body in the woods behind the innocent family (I can be so dark sometimes), but for now I’ll keep it as is.

There are tons of how-to instructions online for building your own terrarium so I won’t go in to all the detail. The main thing is to ensure you choose plants that you can easily care for and that you can provide with the ideal growing conditions, ensure your vessel has adequate drainage, and place it in an area you will not forget about (or set reminders in your phone to regularly check your plant).

The vessel is a brass serving bowl that I picked up at Target (I lined the inside with plastic before I put any dirt in it as well as put a few rocks in the bottom for drainage and so I wouldn’t have to add so much dirt), the figurines are model train HO scale figures I purchased online and the plants I purchased at my local garden centre. I’m really looking forward to the plants spreading a bit and filling out the bowl.

Now fingers crossed I don’t murder the terrarium! It is a long weekend for me here so I have a lot of things on the agenda, including picking up a new vintage piece (I’ll fill you in later – I have some bedroom updates planned!), working on my powder room, hopefully finishing my sewing table project, doing some knitting, and hopefully lots of relaxation! Whatever you’re doing this weekend, I hope it is something special!