Re-organising, re-uses

Evidence of destruction. 

Since my return to a near fully-wrecked garden, I've been thinking of ways to reorganize my plants and also to 'pet-proof' them. Part of my thoughts on these were on husband-proofing them and I believe I might have found a partial solution.

I have to admit a friend of mine gave me the idea - creating terrariums, which are basically enclosed mini-gardens. They are particularly helpful for the busy and forgetful (not to mention, my husband) - because they are mostly enclosed, moisture is kept within the terrarium so we don't have to water it very often.

My attempt at creating a terrarium.

There are obviously a wide selection of plants to choose from when building our terrarium and I will share more on this in my next post. Today I just want to share photos of my latest potting attempts. I've placed them all around the house and they are heavy enough to stop the kitten from turning them over.

Having a mix of different plants in shallow dish.

I realized the key in this is having small stones in your container to weigh it down. In my top picture, you may have noticed that one of my earlier attempts at planting in a shallow glass dish had been overturned by the kitten. I've noticed that he hasn't succeeded with the stone-weighted one. Fingers crossed but I hope he continues to leave them alone.  

Putting the vase to use as plant pot.

I add charcoal in the mix because I find that they not only act as a nice filter for excess water, they help with water retention. I also like using charcoal because an NEA officer once told me that water that's been filtered by charcoal is less favored by breeding mosquitoes. So far, it's worked.

I think I particularly like the mini terrarium I've built using my vase for cut-flowers. I don't usually get cut flowers now that I have my own garden so the vase had been sitting on my shelf for a while. I think having the plants in it make it look great and these are just some ideas we can consider as we start decorating our homes for year-end festivities and the new year.

The great thing about having our home-built terrariums as decoration is the fact that it is totally green! It's living and will stay with you for a long time. Hope you will check in again for my next post on how to build our own terrariums and the kinds of plants that will fit this kind of environment.