We saw an interesting concept of a bottle garden at Garden Tech @ Hort Park some weeks ago and decided to try our hands on one.

The bottle gardens were housed in beautiful glass canister and most were priced 68 dollars and above. You may browse the designs here.

I have also found this video which teaches you how to make your own terrarium.

The materials we need:

Goldfish bowl - available at 8 dollars at Mustafa

Potted plants - 3.99 dollars each at Ikea and Giant

Gravel - 2 dollars from aquarium shop; form the base of the terrarium for drainage

Activated charcoal - 2.50 dollars from aquarium shop; placed above the gravel to purify the water

Potting compost (not shown above) - 4.50 dollars from any florist

Figurines - 2 dollars each from Daiso

We chose plants with variegated leaves for better presentation. You need slow-growing plants for purpose of the terrarium.

Croaky in surgical gloves - separating the soil from the roots. These are very handy gloves, especially when you don’t want to get your hands dirty and your nails trapped in soil.

The finished terrarium on my kitchen top.

It’s not difficult to find a goldfish bowl, but it’s difficult to find a matching lid. I tried to look around different places for suitable cookie canister (those you see in cafes holding muffins) but I just couldn’t find one that was big enough to house my plants. I’m just short of stepping into a TCM shop asking the sinseh where he got his glass to house his ginseng and linzhi. Geez.

Out of desperation, I use an acrylic cutter to cut the leftover remnants of acrylic from my aquarium lid to form a circle. And I stuck a glass marble in the center with epoxy glue. As the cutting wasn’t perfect, the lid has scratches around the corner and I have to frame it up with black acrylic paint and varnish.

Sidenote: I spent $11 on the acrylic cutter and more money on the acrylic panel - but those were for a different purpose of creating a acrylic lid for my aquarium. I would think it will be more cost-friendly if you just walk into a specialist shop and ask them to custom-cut a small piece of acrylic/glass for you.

The final display. Now sitting on my coffee table.

Notice there are two sides to the display - one side with the dwarf with the watering can, and the other with the frog prince. You are supposed to turn the terrarium around so that each side is able to get adequate sunlight. And for this, I have placed a turn-tray beneath the terrarium. The condensation formed on the glass will be recycled to water the plants. It’s supposed to be a self-contained environment and minimal care is required. Good for me - as I tend to forget watering my plants!

This post is filed under Simple Living.