Transcript:
Hey, guys, how’s it going so today? I’m tackling a terrarium planting project and Erin and I actually already set up for this video and tried to film it and kind of more of a traditional style and it was not going well because this terrarium glass just catches all the reflections, and we tried it in multiple different locations like the greenhouse inside out here and it wasn’t working. So I want to try the best to vlog this experience Because I thought you guys might be interested in it. I’m going to be planting cactus and succulents in a non draining terrarium, and I’ll be talking a little bit Also on how to have success with that like how to layer your things. I’ll show you a success project that I did about a year and a half ago or a little bit longer than that. So let me turn the camera around and show you all the stuff. I have out so this is the terrarium. Isn’t that pretty? But you can see all the light like reflecting. I mean, I can wave at you. In the glass, it’s just so hard to take pictures and do video through glass. So maybe one day we’ll figure it out. There’s my success project that I planted up over a year and a half ago. Let me take the dome off, so we’ve got a crafty lab. We’ve got a huar. Thea and an Astra fight! Um, in there and then you can see the layering, and I’ll be talking about that. I’m super pleased, of course with the progress and how these plants have done. I mean, that’s a long time to be in a container that doesn’t drain and to look so happy is awesome. We’ve got some supplies out. I’ve got some larger decorative stones. These are actually roots of plants that. I just grabbed out of a flower bed when I was doing some cleanup. I thought they looked kind of interesting like for a fairy garden or for a project like this. My watering syringe. There’s a lens, a lens brush. I stole from Erin that I clean the plants off with if I get dirt on them fertilizer. I’ve got some aquarium stones and the color Aztec bronze. Don’t mind my dirty hands. I just was pruning Tomatoes anyway. I think that’s a really pretty color and then just some washed sand, which is not white sand. It’s got a little bit more orange and brown grey kind of tones to it and then on this side of the table. I have my cactus mix. I’ve got a selection of plants and you can see. I was already into the project like I was trying to figure out which ones I wanted in there when we decided just to stop filming the way we were doing it and then. Hydra stones, which I already put in the terrarium here And these are a type of recycled glass. I think there’s a couple in here on the grab them, so they’re not sharp. They’re not like just straight up glass. They are recycled in a way that puts a lot of air in holes and I’m kind of like pumice and so those holes gather all the oxygen and water and release them to the plant’s roots as the plants need them. So you can see, That’s how I did this one. I have a layer of Hydra stones. And then I did do a little layer of moss because you can see all the layers in here. I didn’t want my soil to go down into my Hydra stones and make a mess, so there’s just the tiniest layer of moss and then my soil. Now in this one. I already put my layer of Hydra stones. Let me see if I can show you see those in there. And then my layer of cactus and ice mix. I skipped the Moss because you can’t even see it in this container because it rests down in the base. So this project was the first one I ever used the Hydra stones, and so it was an experiment because I typically do not put anything at the base of my container’s, non draining or traditional. I don’t put any gravel or rocks because actually does more harm than good to your plants. So I was a little skeptical of the Hydra stones, but clearly they are working really well, and I think it’s just what they do. In terms of absorbing extra water and releasing it, you know, as plants need it. I only water this one about once a month. Maybe, and I only put a tiny bit of water in there, so it’s super low maintenance, but what happens when you put rocks at the bottom of a container is that it doesn’t collect the water quickly like you think it would like you think that the water would travel through your layers of soil and then just drip into the gravel, but what happens is your water travels through your soil. And then it’s gathers at the very bottom most layer of soil, which acts as a sponge. That’s what we call the saturation zone so it will absorb as much water as it possibly can before it will start dripping into the gravel. So it’s actually much more wet than you would think and so what you’re essentially doing is moving that saturation zone from maybe the bottom of the container up closer to your plant’s roots, which, in this case what the cactus and succulents could make them rot a lot quicker. So that’s the reason why. I shy away from gravel. Hydra stones seem to be working, So I thought I would do the same thing in this. So at this point, I am going to attempt to plant and show you hopefully through the top hole without getting my hands all up in the way these plants going in. I want to keep this kind of like minimal looking. Alright, guys! I hope you can see inside the terrarium. Well, enough. I’m gonna do my best to keep my hands out of the way. I’m going to use a spoon from the kitchen, and I’m just gonna move some of the soil out of the way, so I can plant my first thing, and I think I’m gonna go with this. Astro, fight them first! I think this is such a unique and unusual looking plant. Look at the color and the texture, so amazing and so low-maintenance. Okay, here we go so. I just kind of rested that down in the well I created, and now I’m going to tamp some soil in around its roots easier said than done when trying to keep my big ol hands out of the way so now. I know I’m not going to be planting anything else around kind of this side of the Astra. Fight them! So I’m just gonna use my fingers and make sure that that soil on this side is really firmly packed down so that when we put our top dress on, it’s not hard to cover it with sand, so the next thing. I’m going to use. Is this plant root? And I’m just gonna set it on. It’s side, yeah. I think that that looks really neat. Don’t you think that that is like the perfect shape for the Astra? Fight him how the stick just kind of like goes around it. I love it so now. I’m going to place the hot war theater the back here and these are always awesome plants to use because they show up really really well through glass. Even because of how intensely contrasted, their leaves are and the last plant. I’m going to use. Is this cute little cactus pear? I think just keeping it to three plants will keep it nice and simple and clean. It would be gentle with these. They’re a little bit pokey. How’d she mercy? Yeah, that was not smooth. I got to make a deeper hole anyway. A little bit more soil around that cactus, and I do think I’m gonna keep this little opening in the front kind of blank because I kind of want to do a little sand area there. So now I’m gonna take my brush and I’m just gonna clean off any dirt that I got on any of the plants and occasionally a plant will be a little bit stubborn in the way you want it to sit and you can use little rocks at the base to kind of prop them up kind of like that. So at this point? I’m just gonna start top dressing with some pretty stones. Okay, so I filled in most of the container well, 3/4 of it anyway, with the stone top dress and now. I’m gonna start working on putting some sand up here. So if you have a hard time placing sand or you’re working in a really tight area. I find it helpful to use my syringe that I use for watering, so I just take out the middle section like the inside section and fill it with sand and then check this out super precise precision sand placing tool. A spoon also works in the larger areas, okay. I think it’s done so here’s. The finished product through the top opening. You can see, it’s a very minimalistic very few plants. Some stones, sand. I used a couple of larger rocks. You can see right in there. That are really pretty just for decorative accent and then here is what it looks like from the outside, and I know it’s probably pretty hard to see. I tossed a shade up just so that we didn’t have any glare, but at least you can see kind of the sand layer there and kind of how it’s put together, and I’m hoping to get some good pictures inside, okay, so now I want to talk about how to take care of a terrarium like this watering first, so I like to use a large syringe which you can order on Amazon. We’ll link it down below to water plants, especially when they’re in a terrarium, and especially when there’s sand involved, because if I was to use a watering can and just water over the top, it would burst off, Make a mess all over the inside of the glass, and then second, it would dislodge my sand all over the place. So this is a precision tool so to do it. I just go in and drop a little bit of water by the root zone of each plant instead of watering the entire top of the terrarium. Let me show you how I do that so you can see it’s super easy to use a syringe because you can control the amount of water. You give each plant and you can control exactly where it goes now. I water about every two weeks – once a month two weeks, maybe this time of year when it’s really hot because where I have like my other terrarium, it’s actually in a warmer room. Um, so. I’ll check it every couple of weeks and then in the winter time, it’s about like once a month, but you know, it totally depends on what type of plants you use like the type. I use a hoe or Thea and the cacti Esther fight and we’re all very low water users so once a month is probably sufficient all of the time. If you’re to use something else like a chive areas or something like that, which I don’t tend to have as good of luck with those in terrarium situations like this, but if you do that, they may need water a little bit more often, but you just want a water super sparingly and that is the key water sparingly and have a type a terrarium that has some sort of airflow through it. As far as lighting goes, you don’t want to put this actually in direct Sun. Because that glass intensifies the light and it can like almost pinpoint the light and it can burn the succulents and the cacti. I like to just put it in a really bright room, and they seem to do really well that way. As far as fertilizer goes, I brought this out. This is what I use on my other cactus and succulents. I don’t typically fertilize anything in Terraria very often because I like them to stay small. I don’t really want to promote growth if I see a plant looking like it’s maybe struggling first off. I’ll make sure it’s getting enough light. I’ll feel around with my fingers around Its roots to make sure there’s no extra water in there. And then if those two things are good then. I’ll go in with a little bit of plant food and give it a little bit of new energy. So there’s really not much else to caring for these other than just your routine grooming -. Make sure you pull off any, you know. Suffering leaves or anything that’s dried up. Just take a look at your plants. Make sure that they’re not like an insect. Infestation is not starting. Because if you’re looking at your plants routinely and you catch stuff early, you can usually take care of it A lot easier than if you let it like an insect population boom. You don’t want to put a terrarium like this one outside, because you know, obviously if there’s a sprinkler hitting it or if you get rain and it goes inside this tarean, there’s nowhere for that water to go. You’re gonna have dead plants, so I recommend pretty much. All terrariums just be kept inside. I don’t know a reason why you would even put one outside. So that’s it for this project. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I actually hope that it turned out. I don’t really know it’s hard. Once you start a project and then you have to switch gears and do it kind of differently and I didn’t use any of our fancy camera gear or anything like that. So I hope you got the gist of what my project was today, and then maybe even picked up a tip or two on how to take care of them, so the last thing. I really just need to do is go. Put it in its spot. I’m actually gonna put it in Aaron in my master bedroom, and I’ve got the perfect little dresser for it. So hopefully I can get some good shots of it later. So thank you guys so much for hanging out and watching this video and we will see you in the next one. Bye !